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THE GREAT DESIGN OF HENRY IV 

FROM THE MEMOIRS OF THE 
DUKE OF SULLY 

AND 

THE UNITED STATES OF EUROPE 

BY EDWARD EVERETT HALE 



WITH INTRODUCTION 

BY 

EDWIN D. MEAD 



PUBLISHED FOR THE INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF PEACE 

GINN AND COMPANY, BOSTON 

1909 



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Copyright, igog, by 
The International School of Peace 



ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 



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GINN AND company • PRO- 
PRIETORS • BOSTON • U.S.A. 



TO THE MEMORY OF 

EDWARD EVERETT HALE 

THIS EDITION OF 

THE GREAT DESIGN OF HENRY IV 

WHICH HE MOST CONSPIOUOUSLY 

AND EARNESTLY COMMENDED 

TO THE ATTENTION 

OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE 

IS DEDICATED 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Introduction, by Edwin D. Mead vii 

The Great Design of Henry IV i 

Passages Illustrating the History of the Great De- 
sign 54 

The United States of Europe, by Edward Everett 
Hale -]-] 



INTRODUCTION 

The " Great Design " of Henry IV of France was the 
first practical plan of a comprehensive character in modern 
history for the federation of Europe. Europe in 1600 was 
the civilized world ; and this was the great inaugural vision 
in a series of visions, which, thus beginning, rapidly grew, 
of an organized and peaceful world. Dante in his Monar- 
chia had made his fervent plea for a revived and idealized 
Roman Empire, as the ground and guarantee of European 
unity ; but the three centuries between Dante and Henry 
of Navarre had made it plain that the reconstruction of 
the Roman Empire would never come, and that the unity 
of which the great poet -patriot dreamed could only come 
through the federation of independent states. 

A forgotten and almost unknown plan for organizing 
the European powers for the sake of peace deserves here 
at least passing notice ; for it antedated by almost a cen- 
tury the design of the great French king, and by much 
more than a century the publication of his design. We 
get the knowledge of it from Erasmus, who was the great- 
est apostle of peace in his time.^ There is an old letter 
from Erasmus to a friend, written probably about 1 5 1 7, or 
having reference to that period, alluding to an effort at 
that time in behalf of the peace of Europe, which is so 

1 For more complete notice of this significant historical incident, 
see article by the present waiter on " An Early Scheme to organize 
the World," in the Independent, August 29, 1907. 

vii 



viii THE GREAT DESIGN OF HENRY IV 

comprehensive and definite in its character that it may 
almost be considered a " Great Design " previous to the 
famous scheme of Henry IV. Erasmus says in this letter : 

It was a favorite project about that time to assemble a Congress 
of kings at Cambray. It was to consist of Maximilian the Emperor, 
Francis the First, King of France, Henry the Eighth of England, 
and Charles, the sovereign of the Low Countries, of which I am a 
native. They were to enter, in the most solemn manner, into mutual 
and indissoluble engagements to preserve peace with each other, and 
consequently peace throughout Europe. This momentous business 
was very much promoted by a man of most excellent character, 
William of Ciervia ; and by one who seemed to have been born to 
advance the happiness of his country and of human nature, John 
Sylvagius, chancellor of Burgundy. But certain persons who get 
nothing by peace and a great deal by war threw obstacles in the way, 
which prevented this truly kingly purpose from being carried into 
execution. After this great disappointment I sat down and wrote, 
by desire of John Sylvagius, my Querela Pads. 

The Complaifit of Peace, although the most important 
essay by Erasmus in behalf of international justice and 
peace, was not his only nor his first impeachment of the 
war system. He discussed the same subject in his pane- 
gyric to Philip, Duke of Burgundy, at Brussels, in 1504, 
and repeatedly afterwards. It is a thing to be remembered 
that it was from the same land in which, at The Hague, 
the Parliament of Man was in our own time to hold its 
first memorable sessions for the definite inauguration of 
the organization of the world, that the first conspicuous 
and well-considered plea came for the supplanting of the 
war system of nations by the methods of reason. 

The world's great plans for order and peace have been 
born often of the severe experience of disorder and war 
and the burden of the loss and cost of war. Dante's 



INTRODUCTION ix 

Monarchia was prompted by the anarchy rife everywhere in 
Italy in the thirteenth century. The time of Erasmus was 
the time when the great centrahzed monarchies were rising 
upon the ruins of the feudal states, and the standing army, 
a thing then new in history, was making its appearance as 
a regular institution. Grotius's Rights of War and Peace 
was published in the midst of the Thirty Years' War. ' ' The 
continued danger which lies in the heaping up of war 
material transforms the armed peace of our time into a 
crushing burden which peoples find it harder and harder 
to bear," — to avert "the calamities which threaten the 
whole world " from this was the necessity which drove 
the Czar of Russia to call the first Peace Conference at 
The Hague. The very name of Henry of Navarre sug- 
gests the long civil conflict between the Catholics and the 
Huguenots in France ; and the chapters of the history of 
Spain, Austria, the Netherlands, and England which were 
coincident with his stormy career were chapters no less 
tragical, and often yet more tragical, than those of the 
history of France. If ever there was a time to prompt 
rulers and statesmen to great designs for checking the 
war system, it was this time. 

Henry was born in 1553, the year that Mary Stuart 
became queen of England, three years before Charles V 
abdicated in favor of Philip II, and when William the 
Silent was just entering public life. He succeeded to the 
throne of France in 1589, the year after the destruction 
of the Invincible Armada, and five years after the assassi- 
nation of William of Orange ; he fought the battle of Ivry 
in 1590, and promulgated the Edict of Nantes in 1598. 
His illustrious reign — for greatest of all the kings of 
France Henry surely was — and his life were ended by 



X THE GREAT DESIGN OF HENRY IV 

the hand of the assassin in 1610, seven years after the 
death of Queen EHzabeth, Such is the barest chronology 
of the Hfe of the author of the '' Great Design "; but it is 
sufficient to recall to the reader with knowledge and im- 
agination the character of the period in which he worked 
and thought. 

Henry's great minister was the Duke of Sully. Sully 
played a part in the reign of the French king hardly in- 
ferior to that played in the reign of Elizabeth — who, if 
we may believe Sully, is to be looked on as joint author 
with Henry of the ''Great Design" itself — by Cecil, Lord 
Burleigh. Unlike Burleigh, he wrote voluminous memoirs ; 
and it is in these Memoirs of Sully that we are given the 
account of the '' Great Design." The Memoirs cover the 
whole reign, and indeed almost the whole life, of the great 
king. Henry was on his way to visit Sully when he was 
assassinated. Sully lived until 1641. He began to dictate 
his Memoirs to his secretaries shortly after Henry's death, 
these Memoirs being based largely upon journals and notes 
which he had been preparing for many years. Only the 
first two volumes, covering the years 1570 to 1605, were 
completed in his lifetime, being printed in 1634. The un- 
finished portion was transcribed by his secretaries, and the 
third and fourth volumes were published at Paris in 1662, 
more than twenty years after Sully's death. It is at the 
end of the last volume that the special chapter devoted to 
the '' Great Design " appears, although many references 
to it are scattered through preceding pages, and the two 
long passages reprinted in the present volume after the 
" Great Design " itself are of special significance. 

The authenticity of the '' Great Design " as the work of 
Henry himself has been the subject of long and heated 



INTRODUCTION xi 

controversy, a controversy that still goes on. Many have 
charged Sully not only with casting the " Great Design " 
in the shape in which we have it, but with its sheer fabri- 
cation, for some purpose of his own. To me no adequate 
motive for this appears ; and the respective qualities of 
the minds of Henry and Sully make the conception of 
the scheme the more natural for Henry, while the consid- 
erable elaboration of it in some respects by Sully — who, 
in the interview with James I, which he reports, professed 
to have a leading part in developing it — as he came to 
put it into literary form seems not unlikely. The settle- 
ment of this vexed question does not concern us here. 
Whether Shakespeare or Bacon wrote Hamlet, our chief 
interest is in the possession of Hamlet. Whether the king 
or his minister conceived the ''Great Design," our chief 
interest is in the fact that this broad and bold programme 
of world organization was worked out in that critical period 
of history. The controversy, however, has been so notable 
and began so early that I incorporate here, as of probable 
interest to many, the note relating to the matter appended 
by the Abbe de 1' Ecluse to the chapter upon the " Great 
Design " in his edition of Sully's Memoirs, published in 
1747: 

The Memoirs of Sully are the only monument which has preserved 
to posterity an account of the great design of Henry IV. We find 
no traces of it in any of the historians, authors of memoirs, or other 
writers, who were contemporary with that prince ; their silence in 
this matter proceeded, no doubt, from their not knowing enough of 
it to say anything with certainty about it. The world did not begin 
to descant upon it till the '' Memoirs of Sully," wherein it is so clearly 
described, were published ; and among all those who have considered 
it ever since about the middle of the seventeenth century, I find 
scarcely any who have questioned the possibility of executing it : 



xil THE GREAT DESIGN OF HENRY IV 

doubtless, because they lived near enough to the times in which it 
was formed to be convinced, even from the mouths of those who 
had been witnesses of the preparations and dispositions which were 
made, that all the measures had been taken precisely in the same 
manner as related by the Duke of Sully ; and consequently, that it 
would have had but few of those obstacles to encounter which have 
since been raised against it. The author of a manuscript discourse 
in the King's Library, which to me appears to be the most ancient 
memoir we have of that time, seems not in the least to have doubted 
of success in its execution. And M. de Perefixe, who, in the third 
part of his history of Henry the Great, has given a short but very 
accurate account of the scheme, says positively that it would have 
succeeded ; and further confirms his assertion by proofs, which he 
gives (p. 388 and following). The continuator of Thuanus, in what 
little he has said of it (anno 1609-10), does not appear to have been 
of a different sentiment. The Marshal de Bassompierre also, in his 
Journal (tom. i.), seems to be in its favour. To these authorities we 
may also join that of the author of the Life of the Duke of Epernon, 
and some others, who all seem to be of the same opinion. Indeed, 
until the beginning of the present century, all authors appear to 
have been unanimous on this point ; and several of our modern his- 
torians have joined them herein. Vittorio Siri (Mem. Recond. tom. 
i. pp. 29, 514; tom. ii. p. 45, &c.) is the first that I know of by 
whom this great enterprise has been treated as absurd and impossi- 
ble ; but the ignorance which he shows in the whole affair, even in 
those points which are the least contested, his attachment to the 
Spanish politics, and his distance from the persons of Henry IV. 
and his minister, which is every way apparent in all he says on the 
subject, render him, in this respect, very justly exceptionable ; his 
sentiments have been adopted by the author of the History of the 
Mother and Son (tom. i. p. 44), and for a similar reason of attach- 
ment to the queen, mother of Louis XIII. But this writer, such as 
he is, producing no better authority for his opinion than the age of 
Henry IV., who was then near sixty, appears also to have been so 
entirely unacquainted with the affair, that we may, without scruple, 
pronounce he was ignorant of the disposition which had been made 
for the complete execution of it within the space of three years, and 
that he condemns the design without understanding it. I have much 



INTRODUCTION xiii 

greater reverence for the authority of some modern pohticians, who 
consider it as a kind of impossibility thus to change the face of all 
Europe in the manner proposed by Henry IV., and who imagine 
that in our days a much more happy expedient has been discovered 
whereby to obtain the equilibrium of Europe, than by reviving the 
ancient council of the Amphyctions ; what I mean is the precaution 
now observed of having all the principal powers of Europe accede 
to, and become the guarantees of, every particular treaty. But all 
those calamities which we have suffered in consequence of war do 
but too plainly evince its insufficiency. In regard to the main stress 
of the question, I agree with them that Europe could not now, but 
with great difficulty, be constituted in the manner proposed by 
Henry the Great; nevertheless I believe, without pretending to 
subject any one to my opinion, that those who treat this prince's 
design as a chimera do not pay all the necessary attention to the 
circumstances of those times, wherein Europe, from her frequent 
dangers of being subjected to the house of Austria, and by the 
bloody wars which a difference of religion had excited, and continued 
daily to excite, found herself in a manner compelled to have recourse 
to extraordinary means to put a period to her miseries. I cannot 
finish this remark better than in the words of M. I'Abbe de Saint- 
Pierre, in his Discours sur le Grand Homme : " From hence we 
may perceive, that if Henry IV., King of France, had executed his 
celebrated and well-projected design, whereby to render peace per- 
petual and universal among the sovereigns of Europe, he would 
have procured the greatest possible benefit, not only to his own sub- 
jects, but to all the Christian kingdoms, and even, by a necessary 
consequence, to the world in general ; a benefit of which all genera- 
tions, present and to come, would have participated down to the lat- 
est time ; a benefit by which we should have been exempted from 
those terrible and numerous evils which are the effects of foreign 
and domestic wars; a benefit which would have been the source 
of all those sweets which naturally flow from an uninterrupted and 
universal tranquillity ; — if, I say, he had been so happy as to have 
executed this great design, it would have rendered him, beyond all 
comparison, the greatest man the world ever has produced or prob- 
ably ever will produce." After some further reflections upon the 
means still more practicable, this judicious author adds : " This prince, 



XIV THE GREAT DESIGN OF HENRY IV 

however, has always had the honour of being considered as the 
author of the most important invention, and most useful discovery 
for the benefit of mankind, that has yet appeared in the world ; the 
execution of which may, perhaps, be reserved by Providence for the 
greatest and most capable of his successors," 

. With the great body of controversial Hterature upon 
the subject which has followed are associated the names 
of Cornelius, Ritter, Kiikelhaus, Philipson, and Pfister. 
The critical view is sufficiently stated for the general 
reader by Kitchin, in his Histoiy of France, as follows : 

French historians are much divided respecting the problem of the 
Christian Republic ; for while they wish to believe in so splendid a 
conception of the international position of France, as the great cen- 
tral figure round which all the rest are grouped, their historic sense 
and judgment compel them to doubt, if not to deny, the genuineness 
of the document on which it rests. . . . No other writer of the age 
alludes to the scheme. It would have been communicated, more or 
less fully, to several of the Cabinets of Europe, yet dead silence pre- 
vails ; no minister, for example, of either Elizabeth or James alludes 
to it. This, taken with the weakness of the evidence in the CEcoiio- 
mies, is conclusive against the genuineness of the scheme with its 
magnificent chimera of an European Amphictyonic assembly. . . . 
It must not be supposed that Henry IV. had any such plan neatly 
drawn out, and ready for execution, when he made his preparations 
for appearing in Germany ; on the contrary, he was not at all the 
man to have worked out any such elaborate design, for he had nei- 
ther knowledge nor inclination for it. And besides this, there is in- 
ternal proof which shows that it did not come from his hand. How 
could he, the tamer of the noblesse, who knew them so well, and 
was ever on his guard against them, have dreamt of proposing to 
carve out ten principalities on his northern frontier for ten great 
Lords of France? 

Yet we must not absolutely deny the existence of any " great de- 
sign " of the kind. It was an age of political speculations ; men's 
attention was called to international questions, or invited to study 
the nature of states within their own borders ; the classical examples 



INTRODUCTION . XV 

were much in vogue ; men asked themselves as to Empires, as to 
Republics ; the pen kept pace with the sword, and showed its new 
power in swaying public opinion. " Learning," as Hallam says of this 
time, " was employed in systematic analyses of ancient or modern 
forms of government"; these were the days of Bodinus' great work 
De Repiiblica J now came out that singular collection of httle books, 
the "Elzevir Republics"; the minds of men had passed from the 
Utopias of the previous age to more practical speculations as to 
what State-systems existed, or might exist. They were conscious 
that Europe had entered on an entirely new phase of being, and 
were eager to see how she would group herself, what would be the 
form of equilibrium to which they hoped she was tending. The 
great struggle of the Thirty Years' War in Germany is heralded by 
these anxious speculations ; for the true decision of the form of 
European politics could never be come to, till Germany had fought 
out the still unsettled questions which vexed her from the Alps to 
the Baltic. The temper of mind corresponds to that which, in a 
somewhat similar age, agitated the French nation under Napoleon 
III., and led to maps of reconstructed Europe, and speculations on 
the equilibrium of states, and wars made " for an idea." Therefore 
there is nothing improbable in the existence of the scheme of a 
Christian Republic before 1610; rather, it is very credible; and if 
we may trust Sully (in the earlier part of the (Economies) we may 
trace the genesis of some plan of the kind, though doubtless not so 
elaborate, in the sagacious speculations of Queen Elizabeth. Sully 
states distincdy that he and the Queen discussed the great project in 
1 60 1, and that she first sketched out the plan of it, which in oudine 
answers to that of the Christian Republic. On her death the matter 
seems to have been re-opened to King James, who characteristically 
shrank from anything so large and decisive; though the young 
prince Henry, perhaps with an eye to a French marriage, professed 
his hearty liking for it. But James drew off from the French side, 
and in 1 604 made a separate peace with Spain. 

We shall not be far wrong if we say that during the last years of 
the life of Henry IV. he cherished hopes of overthrowing the Austro- 
Spanish dominion in Europe, by means of a combination of French 
with Dutch and North German interests ; that England failed him, 
through her insular views, and the temper of her new monarch ; that 



xvi THE GREAT DESIGN OF HENRY IV 

this led him all the more to watch the movements in Germany and 
to strive to settle the outstanding Dutch struggle in favour of the 
Provinces ; and in the end made him once more buckle on his armour 
for what might have been a decisive war. We may even go farther, 
and beheve that Henry had formed large plans for the aggrandise- 
ment of the crown, not in the least plans of the lofty and disinter- 
ested kind attributed to him by Sully. Of this we have an account, 
which is probably correct, in Richelieu's Memoirs. The Cardinal de- 
scribes him as opening out his plans in 1 6 1 o to the Queen : to reduce 
to his obedience Milan, Montferrat, Genoa, Naples ; to present most 
of Milan and Montferrat to the Duke of Savoy, taking in exchange 
Nice and Savoy ; to make Piedmont and the Milanese a kingdom ; 
to call the Duke of Savoy (having lost his old territories) King of the 
Alps ; and thus to secure the approaches of France into Italy ; on the 
other side, having shown himself to the Italian princes as their friend 
(one fancies one hears the voice of Napoleon the Third !), to pass 
into Flanders and Germany, in order to wear out his enemies by 
fanning into flame the smouldering variances between North and 
South Germany, perhaps to make the Rhine his frontier, with three 
or four strong fortresses on it. We may conclude, finally, that the 
Christian Republic is not a formed scheme of Henry's planning, but 
a romance, based on facts, and encouraged by the bold projects of 
Queen Elizabeth, and the war-loving energy of the Duke of Sully. 

This is the extreme critical view, and much that might 
be said to counteract it is obvious. It is not necessary 
here, however, to say it ; for our primary concern is not 
with the authorship of the '' Great Design." The work 
of the Abbe de I'Ecluse is to Dean Kitchin "audacious.'.' 
That work was the very bold editing and rearrangement 
of Sully's Memoirs, to make the work more consecutive 
and readable. Many liberties were certainly taken with 
the text, from which confusions have resulted. L' Ecluse's 
edition was published in 1747 ; and Mrs. Charlotte Lenox 
made her English translation in 1755. This was revised 
in 1 8 10, the text of L'Ecluse being modified through 



INTRODUCTION Xvii 

comparison with the original edition of the Memoirs ; and 
the various editions which have followed in England and 
America have been reprints of this London work of 1810. 
The edition used for the present volume is that published 
in Bohn's Library in 1856. The notes are chiefly the notes 
of L' Ecluse, although it will be seen that certain notes are 
those of the English editor. 

The prime object of the " Great Design," as Sully states, 
was to reduce the House of Austria. It was therefore es- 
sentially a political scheme, however great its general vir- 
tues. The first plan for the federation of Europe which 
was at once comprehensive and disinterested was that of 
William Penn, published in 1693, thirty-one years after the 
publication of the '' Great Design. " It is noteworthy that 
at the close of his essay Penn appeals for reinforcement 
of his plan to Henry's similar scheme : 

I confess I have the passion to wish heartily that the honor of 
proposing and effecting so great and good a design might be owing 
to England, of all the countries in Europe, as something of the nature 
of our expedient was, in design and preparation, to the wisdom, justice 
and valor of Henry the Fourth of France, whose superior qualities 
raising his character above those of his ancestors or contemporaries 
deservedly gave him the style of Henry the Great. For he was upon 
obliging the princes and estates of Europe to a politic balance, when 
the Spanish faction, for that reason, contrived and accomplished his 
murder by the band of Ravilliac. I will not then fear to be censured 
for proposing an expedient for the present and future peace of Eu- 
rope, when it was not only the design but glory of one of the greatest 
princes that ever reigned in it. This great King's example tells us it 
is fit to be done. 

In 1623, in Sully's lifetime, and forty years before the 
account of the " Great Design" was published in the last 
volume of his Memoirs, Emeric Cruce published in Paris 



xviii THE GREAT DESIGN OF HENRY IV 

his little book entitled Le Novean Cynee, which contained 
the first distinct proposal for substituting international 
arbitration for war. It was long believed that the only 
existing copy of this remarkable work was that in the Bib- 
liotheque Nationale in Paris. There was a copy, however, 
in the library of Charles Sumner, bequeathed by him to 
Harvard University ; and this copy, long overlooked, has, 
during the last year, been brought to light, and a trans- 
lation of it will be published immediately in the Interna- 
tional Library. It is noteworthy as the first flowering of 
the peace cause on French soil, the creation of one who 
was living in Paris during the reign of Henry the Fourth. 
We cannot forget either that it was as an exile in France 
that Grotius prepared his Rights of War and Peace, and 
that this appeared at almost the same moment that Cruce 
published his Noiiveau Cynee. 

Four years before the appearance of the last volume of 
Sully's Memoirs, containing the account of the '' Great 
Design," was born the Abbe Saint-Pierre, who, not long 
after the appearance of William Penn's Plan for the Per- 
manent Peace of Europe, published his famous Project for 
settling Perpetual Peace in Europe, in three volumes, the 
most comprehensive and thorough presentation of the sub- 
ject of the better organization of the world which had ever, 
up to that time, been made. Saint- Pierre owed the inspira- 
tion of his effort directly to the ''Great Design," viewing 
his plan as an elaboration of that. ''It falls out happily for 
this project," he wrote, " that I am not the author of it. It 
was Henry the Great who was the inventor of it." Leib- 
nitz, who in 171 5 made the "Project" of Saint-Pierre 
the subject of an important paper in which he developed 
his own thoughts upon international organization, wrote 



INTRODUCTION xix 

personally to the author, and took satisfaction in the fact 
that the project was supported by the practical authority of 
Henry the Fourth. Later Rousseau revived the project of 
Saint-Pierre, devoting a book to it ; and in a subsequent 
pamphlet on Perpetual Peace he wrote : 

I require only, in order to prove that the project of the Christian 
Republic is not chimerical, to name its first author ; for assuredly 
Henry IV. was no fool, nor was Sully a visionary. The Abbe Saint- 
Pierre felt himself warranted by these great names in reviving their 
system. But what a difference in the times, the circumstances, the 
proposal, the manner of doing it, and in the author! To judge of 
this difference let us glance at the general situation of affairs at the 
moment chosen by Henry IV. for the execution of his project. . . . 
But without anything transpiring of these grand designs, everything 
marched on in silence towards their execution. Twice Sully went to 
London ; the party was united in alliance with King James I., and 
the King of Sweden was pledged on his side ; the league was con- 
cluded with the Protestants of Germany ; they were even sure of the 
Princes of Italy ; and all contributed towards the great object without 
being able to say what it was, just like the workmen who labour sep- 
arately at the parts of a new machine of which they do not know the 
form or the use. ... To so many preparations add, for the conduct 
of the enterprise, the same zeal and the same prudence as had gone 
to its formation, quite as much on the part of Henry's minister as 
on his own ; at the head of the enterprise a captain such as himself, 
while his adversary had nothing more to oppose to him, and you will 
be able to judge whether anything which might be deemed favour- 
able to success was absent from the promise of his. Without having 
penetrated his views, Europe, attentive to his immense preparations, 
awaited their results with a kind of terror. A slight pretext was to 
give rise to this great revolution ; a war, which was to be the last, was 
preparing an immortal peace, when an event, whose horrible mystery 
must deepen the terror of it, banished for ever the last hope of the 
world. The same blow which cut short the days of the good King 
plunged Europe anew into the eternal wars which she could no 
longer hope to see come to an end. Be that as it may, these are the 



XX THE GREAT DESIGN OF HENRY IV 

means which Henry IV. collected together for forming the same 
establishment that the Abbe Saint-Pierre intended to form with a 
book. Beyond doubt permanent peace is at present but an idle 
fancy; but given only a Henry IV. and a Sully, and permanent 
peace will become once more a reasonable project. 

The work of Saint-Pierre and Rousseau met with a 
wide and warm response throughout Europe. One fruit 
in Germany was the work of Totze at Gottingen in 1763, 
entitled Permanejit mid Universal Peace, according to the 
Plan of Henry the Fotirth. 

Here in the United States we remember — and we re- 
member it with peculiar tenderness and gratitude at this 
hour — -that the American who first conspicuously and 
enthusiastically urged upon his countrymen attention to 
the ''Great Design" of Henry IV. was Edward Everett 
Hale. This was in an article entitled '' The United States 
of Europe," published in his magazine, Old and New, 
in 1 87 1, the time of the Franco-German war. That article 
is so interesting, and now so memorable, that it is incorpo- 
rated in the present volume. 

'' Has there ever been a moment," asked Dr. Hale in 
this historic paper in 1871, ''when all true men could act 
together, as in this sea of troubles they might act to estab- 
lish the United States of Europe } And if the great man 
of Europe, whoever he may be, speaks that great word, 
and lays the plans for that great harmony, may not this 
land of ours, which has given the great example, do more 
than any land to make real the sublime idea } Our states- 
manship, our policy, our international science, — they have 
no object at this moment so noble, nay, they have none so 
real, as the advance, by one of the great strides of history, 
of a permanent peace among the States of Christendom." 



INTRODUCTION xxi 

Dr. Hale spoke the same word with power in 1 899, as, 
at the call of another European monarch, the representa- 
tives of the nations were gathering, in behalf of the world's 
organization, at The Hague. He is speaking it to us still 
to-day, while this struggle for permanent peace among the 
States of Christendom still goes on. Let us hear his voice 
as we turn anew the pages of the '' Great Design." 

Edwin D. Mead 
Boston, Massachusetts 



THE GREAT DESIGN OF 
HENRY IV 



FROM THE MEMOIRS OF THE DUKE 
OF SULLY 

As this part of these Memoirs will be entirely taken up 
with an account of the great design of Henry IV., or the 
political scheme by which he proposed to govern, not only 
France, but all Europe, it may not be improper to begin it 
with some more general reflections on this monarchy, and 
on the Roman Empire, upon whose ruins we know it has 
been formed, as well as all the other powers which at this 
day compose the Christian world. 

If we consider all those successive changes which Rome 
has suffered from the year of the world 3064, which is that 
of its foundation,^ its infancy, youth, and virility, its declen- 
sion, fall, and final ruin; those vicissitudes, which it expe- 
rienced in common with the great monarchies by which it 
was preceded, would almost incline one to believe that em- 
pires, like all other sublunary things, are subject to be the 
sport, and at last to sink under the pressure, of time. And 
if we extend this idea still further, we shall, perhaps, per- 
ceive that they are all liable to be disturbed or interrupted in 

1 The opinion now most generally received is that of Varro, who 
places the time of the foundation of Rome nearly two hundred years 
later. 



2 THE GREAT DESIGN OF HENRY IV 

their courses by certain extraordinary incidents, which, for 
anything that we can discover to the contrary, may be termed 
epidemical distempers, that very frequently hasten their de- 
struction ; and their cure by this discovery becoming easier, 
we may at least save some of them from those catastrophies 
which are so fatal to them. 

But if we endeavour to discover more visible and natural 
causes of the ruin of this vast and formidable empire, we 
shall perhaps soon perceive they were produced by a devia- 
tion from those wise laws and that simplicity of manners, 
which were the original of all its grandeur, into luxury, ava- 
rice, and ambition ; yet there was, finally, another cause, the 
effect of which could hardly have been prevented or fore- 
seen by the utmost human wisdom ; I mean the irruptions of 
those vast bodies of barbarous people, Goths, Vandals, Huns, 
Herulians, Rugians, Lombards, &c., from whom, both sepa- 
rately and united, the Roman Empire received such violent 
shocks that it was at last overthrown by them. Rome was 
three times sacked by these barbarians ; in 4 1 4, under Ho- 
norius, by Alaric, chief of the Goths; in 455, by Genseric, 
king of the Vandals, under Martian; and in 546, under 
Justinian, by Totila and the Goths. ^ Now, if it be true 
that after this the city retained the shadow of what she 
had been, if we must regard her as divested of the empire 
of the world, when her weakness and the abuses of her 
government made this event to be looked upon, not simply 
as inevitable, but as very near, and, in fact, already arrived, 
the epocha of her fall may then be marked long before the 
reign of Valentinian III., to whom it will be doing a favour 

1 These three epochas are not quite just: the first was in 410, instead 
of 414; the second in 455 or 456; and the third in 524, under Tegas, 
successor of Totila, and the last king of the Goths ; the sacking the city 
this last time lasted forty days. 



THE GREAT DESICxN OF HENRY 1\' 3 

to call the last emperor of the West;^ for several of those 
emperors whom he succeeded were, in reality, no better 
than tyrants, by whom the empire was torn and divided, 
and the shattered remnants left to be the spoil of the bar- 
barians, who, indeed, by their conquests, acquired an equal 
right to them. 

Rome, nevertheless, still beheld, at intervals, some faint 
appearances of a revival ; those of which she was most sen- 
sible were under the reign of the great Constantine, whose 
victories once more united this vast body under one head ; 
but when he transported the seat of his empire from Rome 
to Constantinople, he, by that step, without being sensible 
of it, contributed more to the destruction of a work which 
had cost him so much labour than all the ill conduct of his 
predecessors had been able to effect ; and this even he ren- 
dered irremediable, by dividing his empire equally between 
his three sons. Theodosius, who, by good fortune, or from 
an effect of his great valour, found himself in the same 
circumstances with Constantine, would not, perhaps, have 
committed the same fault had he not been influenced by 
the force of Constantine's example ; but this, in a manner, 
necessarily obliged him to divide his empire in two — Arca- 
dius had the East, Honorius the West; and from that time 
there never was any hopes or opportunity of reuniting them. 

According to the order of nature, by which the destruc- 
tion of one thing contributes to the production of others, 
so, in proportion as the most distant members of the em- 
pire of the West fell off from it, from thence there arose 

1 It would be unjust surely to refuse the title of Emperors of the 
West to Valentinian III., to Honorius, &c. The expressions here used 
by our author should not be understood in their most rigorous sense, 
but only as meaning an empire weakening, and approaching to its final 
destruction. 



4 THE GREAT DESIGN OF HENRY IV 

kingdoms; though indeed they did not at first bear that 
rank. The most ancient of these (its origin appearing to 
have been in the eighth year of the empire of Honorius) is, 
undoubtedly, that which was founded in Gaul by the French, 
so called from Franconia, from whence they were invited 
by the Gauls, who inhabited the countries about the Moselle, 
to assist them in their deliverance from the oppression of 
the Roman armies. It being a custom among these Franks, 
or French, to confer the title of king upon whatever person 
they chose to be their leader, if the first or second of these 
chiefs did not bear it, it is certain, at least, that the third, 
which was Merovius, and more particularly Clovis, who 
was the fifth, were invested with it;^ and some of them 
supported it with so much glory — among others Pepin 
and Charles Martel, to whom it would be doing an injus- 
tice to refuse them this dignity — that their worthy suc- 
cessor, Charlemagne, revived in Gaul an imperfect image 
of the now extinguished empire in the West : this, indeed, 
was facilitated by those natural advantages France enjoys 
of numerous inhabitants trained to war, and a great plenty 
of all things serving the different necessities of life, joined 
to a very great convenience for commerce, arising from 

1 The whole of what is here said may be allowed to be right; ac- 
cording to Petau and Sirmond, the chiefs of the French bore the title 
of kings from the reign of Valentinian II., which was long before the 
year 445, when Claudian, by the taking of Cambray, &c., first established 
himself on this side of the Rhine. They first established themselves on 
the other side of the Rhine about the middle of the third century, and 
extended themselves nearly from the Texel as far as Frankfort. This 
revolt of a part of Gaul against the Romans happened in 434, in the 
twelfth year of the reign of Valentinian HI.; and the author's opinion 
on the establishment of the French in Gaul is confirmed by a learned 
academician, who has cleared up this critical point as much as it was 
possible (the late Abbe Du Bois). (Hist. Crit. de I'Etab. de la Monarchic 
Fran9. dans les Gaules, torn. i. liv. i. chap. 17; liv. ii. chap. 7, 8.) 



THE GREAT DESIGN OF HENRY IV 5 

its situation, which renders it the centre of four of the 
principal powers of Europe — Germany, Italy, Spain, and 
Britain, with the Low Countries. 

Let us here just say one word upon the three races which 
compose the succession of our kings : in the first of them I 
find only Merovius, Clovis L, and Clotharius II.; Charles 
Martel, Pepin le Bref, and Charlemagne in the second, who 
have raised themselves above the common level of their 
race. Take away these six from the thirty-five which we 
compute in these two races, and all the rest, from their 
vices or their incapacity, appear to have been either wicked 
kings, or but the shadow of kings; though among them 
we may distinguish some good qualities in Sigibert and 
Dagobert, and a very great devotion in Louis le Debon- 
naire, which, however, ended in his repenting the loss of 
empire and his kingdom, together with his liberty, in a 
cloister. 

The Carlovingian race having reigned obscurely, and 
ended so too, the crown then descended upon a third race, 
the first four kings of which, in my opinion, appear to have 
been perfect models of wise and good government. The 
kingdom which came under their dominion had lost much 
of its original splendour, for, from its immense extent in 
the time of Charlemagne, it was reduced to very nearly 
the same bounds which it has at this day, with this differ- 
ence, that though they might have been desirous to restore 
its ancient limits, the form of the government, which ren- 
dered the kings subject to the great men and people of 
the kingdom, who had a right to choose and even to gov- 
ern their sovereigns, left them no means by which they 
could succeed in such an attempt. The conduct, therefore, 
which they pursued was to condemn arbitrary power to an 



6 THE GREAT DESIGN OF HENRY IV 

absolute silence, and, in its place, to substitute equity itself, 
a kind of dominion which never excites envy. Nothing now 
v/as done without the consent of the great men and the 
principal cities, and almost always in consequence of the 
decision of an assembly of the states. A conduct so mod- 
erate and prudent put an end to all factions and stifled all 
conspiracies, which are fatal to the state or the sovereign. 
Regularity, economy, -a distinction of merit, strict observ- 
ance of justice, all the virtues which we suppose necessary 
qualifications for the good of a family, were what character- 
ised this new government, and produced what was never 
before beheld, and what, perhaps, we may never see again 
— an uninterrupted peace for one hundred and twenty-two 
years. What these princes gained by it for themselves in 
particular, and which all the authority of the Salique law 
could never have procured them, was the advantage of intro- 
ducing into this house an hereditary right to the crown. 
But they, nevertheless, thought it a necessary precaution 
not to declare their eldest sons their successors till they 
had modestly asked the consent of the people, preceded it 
by a kind of election, and usually by having them crowned 
in their own lifetime, and seated with them upon the throne. 
Philip' II., whom Louis VII., his father, caused to be 
crowned and to reign with him in this manner, was the 
first who neglected to observe this ceremony between the 
•sovereign and his people : several victories, obtained over 
his neighbours and over his own subjects, which gained 
him the surname of Augustus, served to open him a pas- 
sage to absolute power; and a notion of the fitness and 
legality of this power, by the assistance of favourites, minis- 
ters, and others, became afterwards so strongly imprinted 
•in his successors, that they looked upon it as a mark of 



THE GREAT DESIGN OF HENRY IV 7 

the most profound good policy to act contrary to those 
maxims, the general and particular utility of which had 
been so effectually confirmed by experience. And this they 
did without any fear, or, perhaps, without any conception 
of the fatal consequences which such a proceeding, against 
a nation that adored its liberty, might, and even necessarily 
would, incur ; of which they might easily have become sen- 
sible, from the means to which the people had immediate 
recourse, to shake off the yoke of tyranny with which they 
saw themselves menaced. The kings could never obtain of 
their people any other than that kind of constrained obedi- 
ence which always inclines them to embrace with eagerness 
all opportunities of mutiny. This was the source of a thou- 
sand bloody wars: that by which almost all France was 
ravaged by the English; that which we carried on with 
Italy, Burgundy, and Spain ; all of them can be attributed 
to no other causes than the civil dissensions by which they 
were preceded : and here the weakest side, stifling the voice 
of honour and the interest of the nation, constantly called 
in foreigners to assist them in the support of their tottering 
liberties. These were shameful and fatal remedies ; but 
from that time they were constantly employed, and even 
to our days by the house of Lorraine, in a league, for which 
religion was nothing more than the pretence. Another evil, 
which may at first appear to be of a different kind, but 
which, in my opinion, proceeds from the same source, was 
a general corruption of manners, a thirst for riches, and a 
most shameful degree of luxury; these, sometimes sepa- 
rately and sometimes united, were alternate causes and 
effects of many of our miseries. 

Thus, in a few words, I have exposed the various species 
of our bad policy with respect both to the form of the 



8 THE GREAT DESIGN OF HENRY IV 

government, successively subjected to the will of the people, 
the soldiers, the nobles, the states, and the kings; and in 
regard to the persons likewise of these last, whether de- 
pendent, elective, hereditary, or absolute. 

From the picture here laid before us, we may be enabled 
to -form our judgment upon the third race of our kings; we 
may find a thousand things to admire in Philip Augustus, 
Saint-Louis, Philip le Bel, Charles le Sage, Charles VII., 
and Louis XII. But it is to be lamented that so many 
virtues, or great qualities, have been exercised upon no 
better principles ; with what pleasure might we bestow upon 
them the titles of great kings, could we but conceal that 
their people were miserable; what might we not, in par- 
ticular, say of Louis IX..? Of the forty-four years which 
he reigned, the first twenty of them exhibit a scene not un- 
worthy to be compared with the eleven last of Henry the 
Great ; but I am afraid all their glory will appear to have 
been destroyed in the twenty-four following, wherein it ap- 
pears that the excessive taxes upon the subjects to satisfy 
an ill-judged and destructive devotion, immense sums trans- 
ported into the most distant countries for the ransom of 
prisoners, so many thousand subjects sacrificed, so many 
illustrious houses extinguished, caused a universal mourning 
throughout France, and all together a general calamity. 

Let us for once, if it be possible, fix our principles ; and 
being from long experience convinced that the happiness 
of mankind can never arise from war, of which we ought 
to have been persuaded long ago, let us upon this principle 
take a cursory view of the history of our monarchy. We 
will pass by the wars of Clovis and his predecessors, be- 
cause they seem to have been in some degree necessary to 
confirm the recent foundations of the monarchy : but what 



THE GREAT DESIGN OF HENRY IV 9 

shall we say of those wars in which the four sons of Clovis, 
the four sons of Clotharius II., and their descendants were 
engaged, during the uninterrupted course of one hundred 
and sixty years ? and of those also by which, for the space 
of one hundred and seventy-two other years, commencing 
with Louis le Debonnaire, the kingdom was harassed and 
torn ? What follows is still worse : the slightest knowledge 
of our history is sufficient to convince any one that there 
was no real tranquillity in the kingdom from Henry III. 
to the peace of Vervins ; and, in short, all this long period 
may be called a war of near four hundred years' duration. 
After this examination, from whence it incontestably ap- 
pears that our kings have seldom thought of anything but 
how to carry on their wars, we cannot but be scrupulous in 
bestowing on them the title of truly great kings; though 
we shall, nevertheless, render them all the justice which 
appears, to have been their due : for I confess (as indeed it 
would be unjust to attribute to them only a crime which 
was properly that of all Europe) that several of these princes 
were sometimes in such circumstances as rendered the wars 
just, and even necessary; and from hence, when indeed 
there was no other means to obtain it, they acquired a true 
and lasting glory. For herein, from the manner in which 
several of these wars were foreseen, prepared for, and 
conducted, we may in their councils discover such master- 
strokes of policy, and in their persons such noble instances 
of courage, as are deserving of our highest praises. From 
whence then can proceed the error of so many exploits, 
in appearance so glorious, though the effect of them has 
generally been the devastation both of France and all Eu- 
rope.? I repeat it again, of all Europe, which even yet 
seems scarcely sensible that in her present situation — a 



lO THE GREAT DESIGN OF HENRY IV 

situation in which she has been for several centuries — 
every attempt which shall tend to her subjection, or only 
to the too considerably augmenting of any one of her prin- 
cipal monarchies at the expense of the others, can never 
be any other than a chimerical and impossible enterprise, 
there are none of these monarchies whose destruction will 
not require a concurrence of causes infinitely superior to all 
human force. The whole, therefore, of what seems proper 
and necessary to be done, is to support them all in a kind 
of equilibrium ; and whatever prince thinks, and in conse- 
quence acts, otherwise, may indeed cause torrents of blood 
to flow through all Europe, but he will never be able to 
change her form. 

When I observed that the extent of France is not now 
so considerable as it was in the time of Charlemagne, my 
intention, most certainly, was not that this diminution should 
be considered as a misfortune. In an age when we feel 
the sad effects of having had ambitious princes from time 
to time for our kings, were all to concur in flattering this 
fatal ambition it would be the cause of still greater evils ; 
and it may be generally observed that the larger the extent 
of kingdoms, the more they are subject to great revolutions 
and misfortunes. The basis of the tranquillity of our own, 
in particular, depends upon preserving it within its present 
limits. A climate, laws, manners, and language, different 
from our own ; seas, and chains of mountains almost inac- 
cessible, are all so many barriers which we may consider as 
fixed even by nature. Besides, what is it that France wants ? 
Will she not always be the richest and most powerful king- 
dom in Europe .? It must be granted. All, therefore, which 
the French have to wish or desire is, that Heaven may 
grant them pious, good, and wise kings ; and that these 



THE GREAT DESIGN OF HENRY IV n 

kings may employ their power in preserving the peace of 
Europe ; for no other enterprise can, truly, be to them either 
profitable or successful. 

And this explains to us the nature of the design which 
Henry IV. was on the point of putting in execution when 
it pleased God to take him to himself, too soon by some 
years for the happiness of the world. From hence likewise 
we may perceive the motives for his pursuing a conduct 
so opposite to anything that had hitherto been undertaken 
by crowned heads ; and here we may behold what it was 
that acquired him the title of ''great." His designs were 
not inspired by a mean and despicable ambition, nor guided 
by base and partial interests : to render France happy for 
ever was his desire ; and as she cannot perfectly enjoy this 
felicity unless all Europe likewise partakes of it, so it was 
the happiness of Europe in general which he laboured to 
procure, and this in a manner so solid and durable that 
nothing should afterwards be able to shake its foundations. 

I must confess I am under some apprehensions lest this 
scheme should at first be considered as one of those darling 
chimeras, or idle political speculations, in which a mind 
susceptible of strange and singular ideas may be so easily 
engaged ; those who shall think thus of it, must be of that 
sort of people on whom the first impressions upon a preju- 
diced imagination have the force of truth ; or those who, 
by their distance from the times and their ignorance of 
the circumstances, confound the wisest and noblest enter- 
prises that have ever been formed, with those chimerical 
projects which princes, intoxicated with their power, have 
in all ages amused themselves in forming. I confess that 
if we attentively examine the designs which have been 
planned from motives of vanity, confidence in good fortune, 



12 THE GREAT DESIGN OF HENRY IV 

ignorance, nay, from sloth, and even timidity itself, we 
must be surprised to behold sovereigns plunged blindly 
into schemes, specious perhaps in appearance, but which, 
at bottom, have not the least degree of possibility. The 
mind of man pursues with so much complacency, nay, 
even with so much ardour, whatever it fancies great or 
beautiful, that it is sorry to be made sensible that these 
objects have frequently nothing real or solid in them. But 
in this, as well as in other things, there is an opposite ex- 
treme to be avoided ; which is, that as we usually fail in 
the execution of great designs from not commencing and 
continuing them with sufficient vigour and spirit, so like- 
wise we are defective in the knowledge of their true worth 
and tendency, because we do not thoroughly and properly 
consider them in all their dependencies and consequences. 
I have myself been more difficult to persuade in this matter 
than perhaps any of those who shall read these Memoirs, 
and this I consider as an effect of that cold, cautious, and 
unenterprising temper, which makes so considerable a part 
of my character. 

I remember the first time the king spoke to me of a 
political system by which all Europe might be regulated 
and governed as one great family, I scarcely paid any atten- 
tion to what he said, imagining that he meant no more by 
it than merely to divert himself, or perhaps to show that 
his thoughts on political subjects were greater, and pene- 
trated deeper, than most others ; my reply was a mixture 
of pleasantry and compliment. Henry said no more at that 
time. He often confessed to me afterwards that he had 
long concealed from me what he meditated on this subject, 
from a principle of shame, which many labour under, lest 
they should disclose designs which might appear ridiculous 



THE GREAT DESIGN OF HENRY IV 13 

or impossible. I was astonished when, some time after, 
he renewed our conversation on this head, and continued 
from year to year to entertain me with new regulations and 
new improvements in his scheme. 

I had been very far from thinking seriously about it. If 
by accident it came into my thoughts for a moment, the 
first view of the design, which supposed a reunion of all 
the different states of Europe — immense expenses, at a 
time when France could scarcely supply her own neces- 
sities — a concatenation of events which to me appeared 
infinite, — these were considerations which had always made 
me reject the thought as vain ; I even apprehended there 
was some illusion in it. I recollected some of those enter- 
prises in which we had endeavoured to engage Europe. I 
considered those in particular which had been formed by 
some of our kings, from much less considerable motives, 
and I felt myself disgusted with this, from the bad success 
of all the former. The disposition of the princes of Europe 
to take umbrage against France, when she would have as- 
sisted them to dissipate their fears from the too great power 
of Spain, this alone appeared to me an insurmountable 
obstacle. 

Strongly prejudiced by this opinion, I used my utmost 
efforts to undeceive Henry, who, on his side, surprised not 
to find me of his opinion in any one point, immediately 
undertook and readily succeeded in convincing me, that my 
thus indiscriminately condemning all parts of his project, 
in which he was certain that everything at least was not 
blamable, could proceed from nothing but strong preju- 
dices. I could not refuse, at his solicitations, to use my 
endeavours to gain a thorough comprehension of it: I 
formed a clearer plan of it in my mind : I collected and 



14 THE GREAT DESIGN OF HENRY IV 

united all its different branches : I studied all its propor- 
tions and dimensions, if I may say so ; and I discovered 
in them a regularity and mutual dependence, of which, 
when I only considered the design in a confused and care- 
less manner, I had not been at all sensible. The benefit 
which would manifestly arise from it to all Europe, was 
what most immediately struck me, as being in effect the 
plainest and most evident ; but the means to effect so good 
a design were, therefore, what I hesitated at the longest. 
The general situation of the affairs of Europe, and of our 
own in particular, appeared to me every way contrary to 
the execution : I did not consider that, as the execution of 
it might be deferred till a proper opportunity, we had all 
those resources whereby to prepare ourselves, which time 
affords those who know how to make the best use of it. 
I was at last convinced, that however disproportionate the 
means might appear to the effect, a course of years, during 
which everything should as much as possible be made sub- 
servient to the great object in view, would surmount many 
difficulties. It is indeed somewhat extraordinary, that this 
point, which appeared to be, and really was, the most diffi- 
cult of any, should at last become the most easy. 

Having thus seen all parts of the design in their just 
points of view, having thoroughly considered and calcu- 
lated, and from thence discovered and prepared for all 
events which might happen, I found myself confirmed in 
the opinion, that the design of Henry the Great was, upon 
the whole, just in its intention, possible, and even practi- 
cable in all its parts, and infinitely glorious in all its effects : 
so that, upon all occasions, I was the first to recall the king 
to his engagements, and sometimes to convince him by 
those very arguments which he himself had taught me. 



THE GREAT DESIGN OF HENRY IV 15 

The constant attention this prince paid to all affairs trans- 
acted around him, from an effect of those singularly unhappy 
circumstances, by which, in almost in every instant of his life, 
he found himself embarrassed, had been the cause of his 
forming this design, even from the time when, being called 
to the crown by the death of Henry III., he considered the 
humbling of the house of Austria as absolutely necessary 
for his security ; yet, if he was not beholden to Elizabeth ^ 
for his thought of the design, it is, however, certain that this 
great queen had herself conceived it long before, as a means 
to revenge Europe for the attempts of its common enemy. 
The troubles in which all the following years were engaged, 
the war which succeeded in 1595, and that against Savoy 
after the peace of Vervins, forced Henry into difficulties 
which obliged him to lay aside all thoughts of other affairs ; 
and it was not till after his marriage, and the firm reestab- 
lishment of peace, that he renewed his thoughts upon his 
first design, to execute which appeared then more impos- 
sible, or at least more improbable, than ever. 

1 The present Duke of Sully is possessed of the original of an excel- 
lent letter of Henry the Great, supposed to have been written by him 
to Queen Elizabeth, though this princess is not named, either in the 
body of the letter, or in the superscription, which is in these words: 
" To her who merits immortal praise." The terms in which Henry herein 
speaks of a certain political project, which he calls " The most excellent 
and rare enterprise that ever the human mind conceived — a thought 
rather divine than human;" the praises which he bestows upon "this 
discourse so well connected and demonstrative of what would be neces- 
sary for the government of empires and kingdoms" — on those "con- 
ceptions and resolutions " from which nothing less may be hoped than 
" most remarkable issues both of honour and glory," — all these passages 
can relate to none but Elizabeth, nor mean any other than the great 
design in question, concerning which it evidently appears from hence, 
that the Queen of England had by letters disclosed her thoughts to 
Henry. The letter from which these extracts are taken is dated from 
Paris, the i ith of July, but without the date of the year. (Lettres d'Henry 
le Grand.) 



l6 THE GREAT DESIGN OF HENRY IV 

He nevertheless communicated it by letters to Eliza- 
beth, ^ and this was what inspired them with so strong an 
inclination to confer together in 1601, when this princess 
came to Dover, and Henry to Calais. What the ceremony 
of an interview would not have permitted them to do, I at 
last began by the voyage which I had made to this prin- 
cess. I found her deeply engaged in the means by which 
this great design might be successfully executed ; and, not- 
withstanding the difficulties which she apprehended in its 
two principal points, namely, the agreement of religions 
and the equality of the powers, she did not appear to me at 
all to doubt of its success, which she chiefly expected, for 
a reason the justness of which I have since been well con- 
vinced of ; and this was, that, as the plan was really only 
contrary to the design of some princes, whose ambitious 
views were sufficiently known to Europe, this difficulty, 
from which the necessity of the design more evidently ap- 
peared, would rather promote than retard its success. She 
further said, that its execution by any other means than 
that of arms, would be very desirable, as this had always 
something odious in it : but she confessed that indeed it 
would be hardly possible to begin it any other wise. A 
very great number of the articles, conditions, and different 
dispositions are due to this queen, and sufficiently show, 
that in respect of wisdom, penetration, and all the other 
perfections of the mind, she was not inferior to any king 
the most truly deserving of that title. 

It must indeed be considered as a very great misfortune 
that Henry could not at this time second the intentions 
of the Queen of England, who wished to have the design 
put in immediate execution; but when he thus laid the 

1 Compare the above with what is said on p. 61. 



THE GREAT DESIGN OF HENRY IV 17 

foundation of the edifice, he scarcely hoped to see the time 
when the finishing hand would be put to it. The recovery 
of his own kingdom from the various maladies by which 
it was afflicted was a work of several years, and unhappily 
he had himself seen forty-eight when he began it ; he pur- 
sued it, nevertheless, with the greatest vigour. The edict 
of Nantes had been published with this view, and every 
other means was used which might gain the respect and 
confidence of the princes of Europe. Henry and I, at the 
same time, applied ourselves with indefatigable labour to 
regulate the interior affairs of the kingdom. We consid- 
ered the death of the King of Spain as the most favourable 
event that could happen for our design : but it received so 
violent a shock by the death of Elizabeth, as had like to 
have made us abandon all our hopes. Henry had no ex- 
pectation that the powers of the north, nor King James, 
the successor of Elizabeth (when he was acquainted with 
his character), would any of them so readily consent to 
support him in his design as this princess had done. How- 
ever, the new allies which he daily gained in Germany, and 
even in Italy, consoled him a little for the loss of Elizabeth. 
The truce between Spain and the Low Countries may also 
be numbered among incidents favourable to it. 

Yet, if we consider all the obstacles which afterwards 
arose in his own kingdom, from the Protestants, the Cath- 
olics, the clergy, nay even from his own council, it will 
appear as if all things conspired against it. Will it be be- 
lieved that Henry could not find in his whole council one 
person, besides myself, to whom he could, without danger, 
disclose the whole of his designs .? and that the respect due 
to him could scarcely restrain those who appeared most de- 
voted to his service from treating as wild and extravagant 



l8 THE GREAT DESIGN OF HENRY IV 

chimeras what he had entrusted to them with the greatest 
circumspection. But nothing discouraged him : he was an 
abler pohtician and a better judge than all his council, and 
all his kingdom; and when he perceived that, notwith- 
standing all these obstacles, affairs began, both at home 
and abroad, to appear in a favourable situation, he then 
considered the success as infallible. 

Nor will this his judgment, when thoroughly considered, 
be found so presumptuous as, from a slight examination, 
it may appear to some. For what did he hereby require 
of Europe.? Nothing more than that it should promote 
the means by which he proposed to fix it in the position, 
towards which, by his efforts, it had for some time tended. 
These means he rendered so easy of execution that it would 
scarcely require what many of the princes of Europe would 
voluntarily sacrifice for advantages much less real, less cer- 
tain, and less durable. What they would gain by it, besides 
the inestimable benefits arising from peace, would greatly 
exceed all the expenses they would be at. What reason 
then could any of them have to oppose it.? And if they 
did not oppose it, how could the house of Austria support 
itself against powers in whom the desire and pleasure of 
depriving it of that strength which it had used only to op- 
press them would have raised against it as many open as 
it had secret enemies — that is, the whole of Europe.? 
Nor would these princes have any reason to be jealous of 
the restorer of their liberty ; for he was so far from seek- 
ing to reimburse himself for all the expenses which his 
generosity would hereby engage him in, that his inten- 
tion was to relinquish voluntarily and for ever all power of 
augmenting his dominions ; not only by conquest, but by 
every other just and lawful means. By this he would have 



THE GREAT DESIGN OF HENRY IV 



19 



discovered the secret of convincing all his neighbours that 
his whole design was to save both himself and them those 
immense sums which the maintenance of so many thousand 
soldiers, so many fortified places, and so many military 
expenses require ; to free them for ever from the fear of 
those bloody catastrophes so common in Europe ; to pro- 
cure them an uninterrupted repose; and finally, to unite 
them all in an indissoluble bond of security and friendship, 
after which they might live together like brethren, and 
reciprocally visit like good neighbours, without the trouble 
of ceremony, and without the expense of a train cf attend- 
ants, which princes use at best only for ostentation, and 
frequently to conceal their misery. Does it not indeed 
reflect shame and reproach on a people who affect to be 
so polished and refined in their manners, that all their pre- 
tended wisdom has not yet, I will not say procured them 
tranquillity, but only guarded them from those barbarities 
which they detest in nations the most savage and unculti- 
vated ? And to destroy these pernicious seeds of confusion 
and disorder, and to prevent the barbarities of which they 
are the cause, could any scheme have been more happily 
and perfectly contrived than that of Henry the Great ? 

Here then is all that could be reasonably expected or 
required. It is only in the power of man to prepare and 
act ; success is the work of a more mighty hand. Sensible 
people cannot be blamed for being prejudiced in favour of 
the scheme in question, from this circumstance only, that 
it was formed by the two potentates whom posterity will 
always consider as the most perfect models of the art of 
governing. In regard to Henry in particular, I insist that 
it belongs only to princes who, like him, have had a constant 
succession of obstacles to encounter in all their designs. 



20 ./ THE GREAT DESIGN OF HENRY IV 

These, I say, are the princes who alone are privileged to 
judge what are real obstacles ; and, when we behold them 
willing to lay down their lives in support of their opinions, 
surely we may abide by their sentiments, without fear of 
being deceived. For my own part, I shall always think 
with regret, that France, by the blow which it received by 
the loss of this great prince, was deprived of a glory far 
superior to that which his reign had acquired, ^ There 
remains only to explain the several parts of the design, 
and the manner in which they were to be executed. We 
will begin with what relates to religion. 

Two religions principally prevail in Christendom, the 
Roman and the Reformed ; but, as this latter has admitted 
of several modifications in its worship, which render it, if 
not as different from itself as from the Roman, at least as 
far from being reunited, it is therefore necessary to divide 
it into two, one of which may be called the Reformed, and 
the other the Protestant religion. The manner in which 
these three religions prevail in Europe is extremely dif- 
ferent. Italy and Spain remain in possession of the Roman 
religion, pure and without mixture of any other. The Re- 
formed religion subsists in France with the Roman, only 
under favour of the edicts, and is the weakest. England, 
Denmark, Sweden, the Low Countries, and Switzerland, 
have also a mixture of the same kind, but with this differ- 
ence, that in them the Protestant is the governing religion, 
the others are only tolerated. Germany unites all these, 

1 From hence we may discover what credit should be given to Siri, 
when he says that the sole passion of Henry the Great was to amass 
riches ; that his minister forced him into the design against his incli- 
nation; and that the Duke of Sully, whom he believes to be the sole 
author of it, was himself prepossessed in its favour only from mere 
obstinacy, or perhaps from motives of self-interest. 



THE GREAT DESIGN OF HENRY IV 2 1 

and even in several of its circles, as well as in Poland, 
shows them equal favour. I say nothing of Muscovy or 
Russia : these vast countries, which are not less than six 
hundred leagues in length, and four hundred in breadth, 
being in great part still idolaters, and in part schismatics, 
such as Greeks and Armenians, who have introduced so 
many superstitious practices in their worship, that there 
scarcely remains any conformity with us among them, 
besides that they belong to Asia at least as much as to 
Europe ; we may indeed almost consider them as a barba- 
rous country, and place them in the same class with Turkey, 
though for these five hundred years we have ranked them 
among the Christian powers. 

Each of these three religions being now established in 
Europe in such a manner that there is not the least appear- 
ance that any of them can be destroyed, and experience 
having sufficiently demonstrated the inutility and danger 
of such an enterprise, the best therefore that can be done 
is to preserve and even strengthen all of them, in such a 
manner, nevertheless, that this indulgence may not be- 
come an encouragement to the production of n-ew sects or 
opinions, which should carefully be suppressed on their 
first appearance. God himself, by manifestly supporting 
what the Catholics were pleased to call the new religion, 
has taught us this conduct, which is not less conformable 
to the Holy Scriptures than confirmed by its examples; 
and, besides, the insurmountable difficulty of forcing the 
pope's authority to be received in those places where it is 
now no longer acknowledged, renders what is here proposed 
absolutely necessary. Several cardinals equally sagacious 
and zealous, and even some popes, as Clement VIII. and 
Paul v., were of this opinion. 



22 THE GREAT DESIGN OF HENRY iV 

All, therefore, that remains now to be done, is to 
strengthen the nations, who have made choice of one of 
these religions, in the principles they profess, as there is 

", nothing in all respects so pernicious as a liberty in belief ; 
and those nations, whose inhabitants profess several, or 

I all these religions, should be careful to observe those 
rules which they find necessary to remedy the ordinary 
inconveniences of a toleration which, in other respects, 
they probably experience to be beneficial. Italy, therefore, 
professing the Roman religion, and being moreover the 
residence of the popes, should preserve this religion in all 
its purity, and there would be no hardship in obliging all 
its inhabitants either to conform to it or quit the country. 
The same regulation, very nearly, might be observed in 
regard to Spain. In such states as that of France, where 
there is at least a governing religion, whoever should think 
the regulation too severe, by which Calvinism would be 
always subordinate to the religion of the prince, might be 
permitted to depart the country. No new regulation would 
be necessary in any of the other nations ; no violence on 
this account, but liberty unrestrained, seeing this liberty is 
become even a fundamental principle in their governments. 
Thus we may perceive that everything on this head might 
be reduced to a very few maxims, so much the more certain 
and invariable, as they were not contrary to the sentiments 
of any one. The Protestants are very far from pretending 
to force their religion upon any of their neighbours, by whom 
it is not voluntarily embraced. The Catholics, doubtless, are 
of the same sentiments, and the pope would receive no in- 
jury in being deprived of what he confesses himself not to 
have possessed for a long time. His sacrificing these chi- 
merical rights would be abundantly compensated by the 



THE GREAT DESIGN OF HENRY 1\' 23 

regal dignity with which it would be proper to invest him, 
and by the honour of being afterwards the common medi- 
ator between all the Christian princes, a dignity which he 
would then enjoy without jealousy, and for which it must 
be confessed this court, by its sagacious conduct, has shown 
itself the most proper of any. 

Another point of the political scheme, which also con- 
cerns religion, relates to the infidel princes of Eu^pe, and 
consists in forcing those entirely out of it who refuse to 
conform to any of the Christian doctrines of religion. 
Should the Grand Duke of Muscovy, or Czar of Russia, 
who is believed to be the ancient Khan of Scythia, refuse 
to enter into the association after it is proposed to him, he 
ought to be treated like the Sultan of Turkey, deprived 
of his possessions in Europe, and confined to Asia only, 
where he might, as long as he pleased, without any inter- 
ruption from us, continue the wars in which he is almost 
constantly engaged against the Turks and Persians. 

To succeed in the execution of this, which will not , 
appear difficult, if we suppose that all Christian princes 1 
unanimously concurred in it, it would only be necessary 
for each of them to contribute, in proportion to their sev- 
eral abilities, towards the support of the forces, and all the 
other incidental expenses, which the success of such an 
enterprise might require. These respective quotas were to 
have been determined by a general council, of which we 
shall speak hereafter. The following is what Henry the 
Great had himself conceived on this head. The pope, for 
this expedition, should furnish eight thousand foot, twelve 
hundred horse, ten cannons, and ten galleys ; the emperor 
and the circles of Germany, sixty thousand foot, twenty 
thousand horse, five large cannons, and ten galleys or other 



24 THE GREAT DESIGN OF HENRY IV 

vessels; the King of France twenty thousand foot, four 
thousand horse, twenty cannons, and ten ships or galleys ; 
Spain, Britain, Denmark, Sweden, and Poland, the like 
number with France, observing only, that these powers 
should together supply what belonged to the sea service 
in the manner most suitable to their respective conven- 
iences and abilities therein; the King of Bohemia five 
thousand foot, fifteen hundred horse, and five cannons; 
the King of Hungary twelve thousand foot, five thousand 
horse, twenty cannons, and six ships ; the Duke of Savoy, 
or King of Lombardy, eight thousand foot, fifteen hundred 
horse, eight cannons, and six galleys ; the republic of Venice 
ten thousand foot, twelve hundred horse, ten cannons, and 
twenty-five galleys ; the republic of the Swiss cantons fifteen 
thousand foot, five thousand horse, and twelve cannons; 
the republic of Holland twelve thousand foot, twelve hun- 
dred horse, twelve cannons, and twelve ships; the Italian 
republics ten thousand foot, twelve hundred horse, ten 
cannons, and eight galleys ; the whole together amounting 
to about two hundred and seventy thousand foot, fifty thou- 
sand horse, two hundred cannons, and one hundred and 
twenty ships or galleys, equipped and maintained at the 
expense of all those powers, each contributing according 
to his particular proportion. 

This armament of the princes and states of Europe 
appears so inconsiderable and so little burdensome, when 
compared with the forces which they usually keep on foot 
to awe their neighbours, or perhaps their own subjects, 
that were it to have subsisted, even perpetually, it would 
not have occasioned any inconvenience, and would have 
been an excellent military academy : but, besides that the 
enterprises for which it was destined would not always have 



THE GREAT DESIGN OF HENRY IV 



25 



continued, the number and expense of it might have been 
diminished in proportion to the necessities, which would 
always have been the same. Though I am persuaded such 
an armament would have been so highly approved of by 
all these princes, that, after they had conquered with it 
whatever they would not suffer any stranger should share 
with them in Europe, they would have sought to join to 
it such parts of Asia as were most commodiously situated, 
and particularly the whole coast of Africa, which is too 
near to our own territories for us not to be frequently 
incommoded by it. The only precaution to be observed 
in regard to these additional countries would have been to 
form them into new kingdoms, declare them united with 
the rest of the Christian powers, and bestow them on dif- 
ferent princes, carefully observing to exclude those who 
before bore rank among the sovereigns of Europe. 

That part of the design which may be considered as purely 
political, turned almost entirely on a first preliminary, which, 
I think, would not have met with more difficulty than the 
preceding article. This was to divest the house of Austria 
of the empire, and of all the possessions in Germany, Italy, 
and the Low Countries : in a word, to reduce it to the sole 
kingdom of Spain, bounded by the Ocean, the Mediter- 
ranean, and the Pyreneean mountains. But that it might, 
nevertheless, be equally powerful with the other sovereign- 
ties of Europe, it should have Sardinia, Majorca, Minorca, 
and the other islands on its own coasts ; the Canaries, the 
Azores, and Cape Verd, with its possessions in Africa; 
Mexico, and the American islands which belong to it, 
countries which alone might suffice to found great king- 
doms ; finally, the Philippines, Goa, the Moluccas, and its 
other possessions in Asia. 



26 THE GREAT DESIGN OF HENRY IV 

From hence a method seems to present itself, by which ' 
the house of Austria might be indemnified for what it would 
be deprived of in Europe, which is to increase its dominions 
in the three other parts of the world, by assisting it to ob- 
tain, and by declaring it the sole proprietor, both of what 
we do know, and what we may hereafter discover in those 
parts. We may suppose that on this occasion it would not 
have been necessary to use force to bring this house to 
concur in such a design ; and, indeed, even on this suppo- 
sition, it was not the prince of this house reigning in Spain 
to whom these parts of the world were to be subjected, but 
to different princes of the same, or of different branches, 
who, in acknowledgment of their possessions, should only 
have rendered homage to the crown of Spain, or, at most, 
a tribute, as due to the original conquerors. This house, 
which is so very desirous of being the most powerful in 
the world, might hereby have continued to flatter itself 
with so pleasing a pre-eminence, without the other powers 
being endangered by its pretended grandeur. 

The steps taken by the house of Austria to arrive at uni- 
versal monarchy, which evidently appears from the whole 
conduct of Charles V. and his son, have rendered this 
severity as just as it is necessary; and I will venture to 
say that this house would not have had any reasonable 
cause to complain of it. It is true it would be deprived of 
the empire ; but when impartially considered, it will appear 
that all the other princes of Germany, and even of Europe, 
have an equal right to it. Were it necessary to prove this, 
we need only recollect on what conditions Charles V. him- 
self, the most powerful of them all, was acknowledged 
emperor ; conditions which, at Smalcalde, he solemnly swore 
to observe, in presence of seven princes or electors, and 



THE GREAT DESIGN OF HENRY IV 27 

the deputies of twenty-four Protestant towns ; the Land- 
grave of Hesse and the Prince of Anhalt being speakers 
for all of them. He swore, I say, never to act contrary to 
the established laws of the empire, particularly the famous 
golden bull obtained under Charles IV., unless it were to 
amplify them, and even that only with the express consent 
and advice of the sovereign princes of Germany; not to 
infringe nor deprive them of any of their privileges ; not to 
introduce foreigners into their council ; not to make either 
war or peace without their consent ; not to bestow honours 
and employments but on natives of Germany ; not to use 
any other but the German language in all writings ; not to 
levy any taxes by his own authority, nor apply any con- 
quests which might be made to his own particular profit. 
He, in particular, formally renounced all pretensions to 
hereditary right in his house to the imperial dignity ; and, 
according to the second article of the golden bull, he swore 
never in his lifetime to recognise a king of the Romans. 
When the Protestants of Germany, after they had in a 
manner driven Ferdinand out of it, consented that the 
imperial crown should be placed on his head, they were 
careful to make him renew his engagements in regard to 
all these articles, and to all these new regulations relative 
to the free exercise of their religion. 

As to the possessions of the house of Austria in Ger- 
many, Italy, and the Low Countries, of which it was to be 
deprived, not to mention here how much it is indebted 
for them to a tyrannical usurpation, it would, after all, be 
only depriving it of territories which it keeps at so pro- 
digious an expense (I speak in particular of Italy and the 
Low Countries), as all its treasures of the Indies have not 
been able to defray : and besides, by investing it with the 



28 THE GREAT DESIGN OF HENRY IV 

exclusive privilege above mentioned, of gaining new estab- 
lishments, and appropriating to its own use the mines and 
treasures of the three other parts of the world, it would be 
abundantly indemnified.; for these new acquisitions would 
be at least as considerable, and undoubtedly far more rich, 
than those. But what is here proposed must not be under- 
stood as if the other nations of Europe were excluded from 
all commerce to those countries ; on the contrary, it should 
be free and open to every one, and the house of Austria, 
instead of considering this stipulation, which is of the 
greatest consequence, as an infringement of its privileges, 
would rather have reason to regard it as a further advantage. 

From a further examination and consideration of these 
dispositions, I do not doubt but the house of Austria would 
have accepted the proposed conditions without being forced 
to it. But, supposing the contrary, what would a resistance 
have signified ? The promise made to all the princes of 
Europe, of enriching themselves by the territories of which 
this house was to be divested, would deprive it of all hopes 
of assistance from any of them. 

Upon the whole, then, it appears that all parties would 
have been gainers by it, and this was what assured Henry 
the Great of the success of his design : the empire would 
again become a dignity to which all princes, but particu- 
larly those of Germany, might aspire : and this dignity 
would be so much the more desirable, though, according 
to its original institution, no revenues would be annexed to 
it, as the emperor would be declared the first and chief 
magistrate of the whole Christian republic ; and as we may 
suppose this honour would afterwards be conferred only on 
the most worthy, all his privileges in this respect, instead 
of being diminished, would be enlarged, his authority over 



THE GREAT DESIGN OF HENRY IV 



29 



the Belgic and Helvetic republics would be more consider- 
able, and upon every new election they would be obliged 
to render him a respectful homage. The electors would 
still continue to enjoy the right of electing the emperor, 
as well as of nominating the King of the Romans, with 
this restriction only, — that the election should not be made 
twice successively out of the same family. The first to have 
been elected in this manner was the Elector of Bavaria, who 
was also, in consequence of the partition, to have had those 
territories possessed by the house of Austria which joined 
to his own on the side of Italy. 

The rest of these territories were to have been divided 
and equally distributed by the Kings of France, England, 
Denmark, and Sweden, among the Venetians, the Orisons, 
the Duke of Wurtemberg, and the Marquis of Baden, Ans- 
pach, and Dourlach. Bohemia was to have been constituted 
an elective kingdom, by annexing it to Moravia, Silesia, 
and Lusatia. Hungary was also to have been an elective 
kingdom, and the pope, the Emperor, the Kings of France, 
England, Denmark, Sweden, and Lombardy, were to have 
had the right of nomination to it ; and because this kingdom 
may be considered as the barrier of Christendom against 
the infidels, it was to have been rendered the most powerful 
and able to resist them ; and this was to have been done 
by immediately adding to it the Archduchy of Austria, 
Styria, Carinthia, and Carniola, and by afterwards incorpo- 
rating with it whatever might be acquired in Transylvania, 
Bosnia, Sclavonia, and Croatia. The same electors were to 
have obliged themselves, by oath, to assist it upon all occa- 
sions ; and they were to have been particularly careful never 
to grant their suffrages from partiality, artifice, or intrigue, 
but always to confer the dignity on a prince who, by his 



30 THE GREAT DESIGN OF HENRY IV 

great qualifications, particularly for war, should be gener- 
ally acknowledged as most proper. Poland being, from 
its nearness to Turkey, Muscovy, and Tartary, in the same 
situation with Hungary, was also to have been an elective 
kingdom, by the same eight potentates, and its power 
was to have been augmented, by annexing to it whatever 
i/ should be conquered from the infidels adjoining to its own 
frontiers, and by determining in its favour those disputes 
which it had with all its other neighbours. Switzerland, 
when augmented by Franche-Comte, Alsace, the Tyrol, 
and other territories, was to have been united into a sover- 
eign republic, governed by a council or senate, of which 
the emperor, the princes of Germany, and the Venetians 
were to have been umpires. 

The changes to be made in Italy were, that the pope 
should be declared a secular prince, and bear rank among 
the monarchs of Europe, and under this title should pos- 
sess Naples, Apulia, Calabria, and all their dependencies, 
which should be indissolubly united to St. Peter's patri- 
mony ; but in case the holy father had opposed this, which, 
indeed, could scarcely have been supposed, the disposition 
must then have been changed, and the kingdom of Naples 
would have been divided and disposed of as the electoral 
kings should have determined. Sicily was to have been 
ceded to the republic of Venice, by letters from the same 
eight principal potentates, upon condition that it should 
render homage for it to every pope who should bear the 
title of Immediate Chief of the whole Italian Republic, 
otherwise, for this reason, called The Republic of the 
Church. The other members of this republic were to have 
been Genoa, Florence, Mantua, Modena, Parma, and Lucca, 
without any alterations in their government ; Bologna and 



THE GREAT DESIGN OF HENRY IV 



31 



Ferrara were to have been made free cities ; and all these 
governments were every twenty years to have rendered 
homage to the pope their chief, by the gift of a crucifix 
of the value of ten thousand crowns. 

Of the three great republics of Europe it appears, upon 
the first glance, that this would have been the most brilliant 
and the richest. Nevertheless, it would not have been so, 
for what belonged to the Duke of Savoy was not comprised 
herein. His territories were to have been constituted one 
of the great monarchies of Europe, hereditary to males and 
females, and to have borne the title of the kingdom of Lom- 
bardy, wherein, beside the territory so called, the Milanese 
and Montferrat would also have been comprised ; and the 
Duke of Mantua, in exchange for these, was to have the 
Duchy of Cremona. An authentic testimony of the insti- 
tution would have been given by the pope, the emperor, 
and the other sovereigns of the Christian republic. 

Among all these different dismemberings we may ob- 
serve that France received nothing for itself but the glory 
of distributing them with equity. Henry had declared this 
to be his intention long before. He even sometimes said, 
with equal moderation and good sense, that were these 
dispositions once firmly established, he would have volun- 
tarily consented to have the extent of France determined 
by a majority of suff rages. ^ Nevertheless, as the districts 
of Artois, Hainault, Cambray, Cambresis, Tournay, Na- 
mur, and Luxembourg might m%e suitably be annexed to 

1 What then does Siri mean when he entertains us with the design 
which he falsely affirms Henry the Great had to join Lorraine to France 
(torn. i. p. 555), and to get Savoy ceded to him (tom. ii. p. 61)? What 
he says of the dispositions in regard to the pope and the Venetians, &c. 
(tom. ii. p. 180), is equally false. This writer seems indeed to have been 
in the pay of the house of Austria. 



32 THE GREAT DESIGN OF HENRY IV 

France than to any other nation, they were to have been 
ceded to Henry, but to have been divided into ten distinct 
governments, and bestowed on so many French princes or 
lords, all of them bearing rank as sovereigns. 

In regard to England it was precisely the same: this 
was a determined point between Elizabeth and Henry, the 
two princes who were authors of the scheme, probably from 
an observation made by this queen, that the Britannic Isles, 
in all the different states through which they had passed, 
whether under one or several monarchs, elective or heredi- 
tary, as well in the male as female line, and in all the 
variations of their laws and policy, had never experienced 
any great disappointments or misfortunes but when their 
sovereigns had meddled in affairs out of their little conti- 
nent. It seems, indeed, as if they were concentred in it 
even by nature, and their happiness appears to depend 
entirely on themselves, without having any concerns with 
their neighbours, provided that they seek only to maintain 
peace in the three nations subject to them, by governing 
each according to its own laws and customs. To render 
everything equal between France and England, Brabant 
from the Duchy of Limbourg, the jurisdiction of Malines, 
and the other dependencies on Flemish Flanders, Galilean 
or imperial, were to have been formed into eight sovereign 
fiefs, to be given to so many princes or lords of this nation. 
These two parts excepted, all the rest of the seventeen 
United Provinces, whether belonging to Spain or not, were 
to have been erected into a free and independent state, 
under the title of the Belgic republic, though there was 
one other fief to be formed from them, bearing the title 
of a principality, to be granted to the Prince of Orange ; 
also some other inconsiderable indemnities for three or four 



THE GREAT DESIGN OF HENRY IV 33 

Other persons. The succession of Cleves was to have been 
divided among those princes whom the emperor would have 
deprived of it, as the means of gratifying them art the ex- 
pense of the house of Austria, as well as some other princes 
of the same district, to whom the imperial towns situated 
therein would have been granted. Even Sweden and Den- 
mark, though they were to be considered as under the 
influence of the same law which England and France had 
imposed on themselves, would, by this distribution, have 
enlarged their territories, and acquired other considerable 
advantages. An end would have been put to the perpetual 
troubles which agitated these two kingdoms; and this, I 
think, would have been rendering them no inconsiderable 
service. All these cessions, exchanges, and transpositions 
towards the north of Germany were to have been deter- 
mined by the Kings of France, England, and Lombardy, 
and the republic of Venice. 

And now, perhaps, the purport of the design may be 
perceived, which was to divide Europe equally among a 
certain number of powers, in such a manner that none of 
them might have cause either of envy or fear from the 
possessions or power of the others. The number of them 
was reduced to fifteen, and they were of three kinds : six 
great hereditary monarchies, five elective monarchies, and 
four sovereign republics. The six hereditary monarchies 
were France, Spain, England or Britain, Denmark, Sweden, 
and Lombardy ; the five elective monarchies were the Em- 
pire, the Papacy or Pontificate, Poland, Hungary, and 
Bohemia ; the four republics were the Venetian, the Italian 
— or what, from its dukes, may be called the Ducal — the 
Swiss, Helvetic, or Confederate, and the Belgic, or Pro- 
vincial republic. 



34 



THE GREAT DESIGN OF HENRY IV 



The laws and ordinances proper to cement a union be- 
tween all these princes, and to maintain that harmony 
which should be once established among them, the recip- 
rocal oaths and engagements in regard both to religion and 
policy, the mutual assurances in respect to the freedom of 
commerce, and the measures to be taken to make all these 
partitions with equity and to the general content and satis- 
faction of the parties ; all these matters are to be understood, 
nor is it necessary to say anything of the precaution taken 
by Henry in regard to them. The most that could have 
happened would have been some trifling difficulties, which 
would easily have been obviated in the general council, 
representing all the states of Europe, the establishment of 
which was certainly the happiest invention that could have 
been conceived to prevent those innovations which time 
often introduces in the wisest and most useful institutions. 

The model of this general council of Europe had been 
formed on that of the ancient Amphyctions of Greece, 
with such alterations only as rendered it suitable to our 
customs, climate, and policy. It consisted of a certain 
number of commissioners, ministers, or plenipotentiaries 
from all the governments of the Christian republic, who 
were to be constantly assembled as a senate, to deliberate 
on any affairs which might occur, to discuss the different 
interests, pacify the quarrels, clear up and determine all 
the civil, political, and religious affairs of Europe, whether 
within itself or with its neighbours. The form and man- 
ner of proceeding in the senate would have been more 
particularly determined by the suffrages of the senate itself. 
Henry was of opinion that it should be composed of four 
commissioners from each of the following potentates : the 
Emperor, the Pope, the Kings of France, Spain, England, 



THE GREAT DESIGN OF HENRY IV 35 

Denmark, Sweden, Lombardy, Poland, and the republic 
of Venice ; and of two only from the other republics and 
inferior powers, which altogether would have composed a 
senate of about sixty-six persons, who should have been 
re-chosen every three years. 

In regard to the place of meeting, it remained to be 
determined whether it would be better for the council to 
be fixed or ambulatory, divided into three, or united in 
one. If it were divided into three, each containing twenty- 
two magistrates, then each of them must have been fixed 
in such a centre as should appear to be most commodious, 
as Paris or Bourges for one, and somewhere about Trente 
and Cracovia for the two others. If it were judged more 
expedient not to divide their assembly, whether fixed or 
ambulatory, it must have been nearly in the centre of 
Europe, and would consequently have been fixed in some 
one of the fourteen cities following : Metz, Luxembourg, 
Nancy, Cologne, Mayence, Treves, Frankfort, Wirtzbourg, 
Heidelberg, Spire, Worms, Strasbourg, Basle, or Besangon. 

Besides this" general council it would, perhaps, have been 
proper to have constituted some others of an inferior de- 
gree, for the particular convenience of different districts. 
For example, were six such created, they might have been 
placed at Dantzic, Nuremberg, Vienna, Bologna, Con- 
stance, and the last wherever it should be judged most 
convenient for the kingdoms of France, Spain, England, 
and the Belgic republic. But whatever the number or form 
of these particular councils might have been, it would have 
been absolutely necessary that they should be subordinate, 
and recur, by appeal, to the great general council, whose 
decisions, when considered as proceeding from the united 
authority of all the sovereigns, pronounced in a manner 



30 THE GREAT DESIGN OF HENRY IV 

equally free and absolute, must have been regarded as so 
many final and irrevocable decrees. 

But let us quit these speculative designs, in which prac- 
tice and experience would, perhaps, have caused many al- 
terations ; and let us come to the means actually employed 
by Henry to facilitate the execution of his great design. 

To gain one of the most powerful princes of Europe, 
with whom to concert all his designs, was what Henry 
always considered as of the utmost consequence : and this 
was the reason that after the death of Elizabeth, who had 
indissolubly united the interests of the two crowns of France 
and England, every means was used which might inspire 
her successor. King James, with all her sentiments. Had 
I but succeeded in the solemn embassy, the particulars of 
which I have related already, so far as to have gained 
this prince's consent to have his name appear openly with 
Henry's, this military confederacy, especially if it had, in 
like manner, been strengthened with the names of the 
Kings of Denmark and Sweden, would have prevented 
the troubles and difficulties of many negotiations ; but 
nothing further could be obtained of the King of England 
than the same promises which were required of the other 
courts, namely, that he would not only not oppose the con- 
federacy, but, when Henry had made his designs public, 
would declare himself in his favour, and contribute towards 
it in the same manner as the other powers interested 
therein. A means was, indeed, afterwards found to ob- 
tain the execution of this promise, in a manner so much 
the more easy as it did not disturb the natural indolence 
of this prince ; and this was by getting what he hesitated 
to undertake in his own name executed by his son, the 
Prince of Wales, who, as soon as he had obtained his 



THE GREAT DESIGN OF HENRY IV 37 

father's promise that he would at least not obstruct his 
proceedings, anticipated Henry's utmost wishes, being 
animated with a thirst of glory and desire to render him- 
self worthy the esteem and alliance of Henry, for he was 
to marry the eldest of the daughters of France. He wrote 
me several letters upon this subject, and expressed him- 
self in the manner I have mentioned. He also further 
said that the King of France might depend upon having six 
thousand foot and fifteen hundred horse, which he would 
oblige himself to bring into his service whenever they 
should be required : and this number was afterwards aug- 
mented by two thousand more foot and eight cannons, 
maintained in all respects at the expense of England for 
three years at least. The King of Sweden did not show 
himself less zealous for the common cause ; and the King 
of Denmark also appeared to be equally well (^sposed in 
its favour. 

In the mean time we were indefatigable in our negotia- 
tions in the different courts of Europe, particularly in the 
circles of Germany and the United Provinces, where the 
king for this purpose had sent Boissise, Fresne-Canaye, 
Baugy, Ancel, and Bongars. The council of the States 
were very soon unanimous in their determinations ; the 
Prince of Orange sent the Sieurs Malderet and Brederode 
from them to offer the king fifteen thousand foot and 
three thousand horse. They were soon followed by the 
Landgrave of Hesse, and the Prince of Anhalt, to whom, 
as well as to the Prince of Orange, the confederacy was 
obliged for being increased by the Duke of Savoy ; by all 
the Reformed religion in Hungary, Bohemia, and Lower 
Austria ; by many Protestant princes and towns in Ger- 
many ; in fine, by all the Swiss cantons of this religion. 



38 THE GREAT DESIGN OF HENRY IV 

And when the succession of Cleves, which the emperor' 
showed himself disposed to usurp, became another incen- 
tive to the confederacy, there was then scarcely any part 
of Germany that was not for us ; which evidently appeared 
from the result of the general assembly at Hall. The 
Elector of Saxony, who perhaps remained alone of the 
opposite party, might have been embarrassed in an affair 
out of which he would probably have found it difficult to 
extricate himself ; and this was to have been done by sug- 
gesting to him the branch of John Frederic, deprived of 
this electorate by Charles V. 

There were several of these powers in regard to whom 
I am persuaded nothing would have been risked by dis- 
closing to them the whole intent and scope of the design. 
On the contrary, they would probably have seconded it 
with the greater ardour when they found the destruction 
of the Austrian grandeur was a determined point. These 
powers were, more particularly, the Venetians, the United 
Provinces, almost all the Protestants, and especially the 
Evangelics of Germany. But as too many precautions 
could not be taken to prevent the Catholic powers from 
being prejudiced against the new alliance in which they 
were to be engaged, a too hasty discovery either of the 
true motives, or the whole intent of the design, was, there- 
fore, cautiously avoided. It was at first concealed from all 
without exception, and afterwards revealed but to few per- 
sons of approved discretion, and those only such as were 
absolutely necessary to engage others to join the confed- 
eracy. The association was for a long time spoken of to 
others only as a kind of general treaty of peace, wherein 
such methods would be projected as the public benefit and 
the general service of Europe might suggest as necessary 



THE GREAT DESIGN OF HENRY IV 39 

to Stop the progress of the excessive powers of the house 
of Austria. Our ambassadors and agents had orders only 
to demand of these princes a renewal or commencement 
of alliance, in order more effectually to succeed in the pro- 
jected peace ; to consult with them upon the means whereby 
to effect it ; to appear as if they w^ere sent only in con- 
junction with them to endeavour the discovery of these 
means ; but yet to second them, and according to the dis- 
position in which they were, to insinuate, as if by acciden- 
tal conjecture, some notion of a new method more proper 
to maintain the equilibrium of Europe, and to secure to 
each religion a more undisturbed repose than they had 
hitherto enjoyed. The proposals made to the Kings of 
England and Sweden, and the Dukes of Savoy and Lor- 
raine, for alliances by marriage, proved very successful ; 
it was absolutely determined that the Dauphin should 
espouse the heiress of Lorraine, which duchy still con- 
tinued, as before, to depend on the empire. 

But no precaution appeared so necessary, nor was more 
strongly recommended to our negotiators, than to con- 
vince all the princes of Europe of the disinterestedness 
with which Henry was resolved to act on this occasion. 
This point was indefatigably laboured, and they were con- 
vinced of it, when, on the supposition that it would be 
necessary to have recourse to arms, we strongly protested 
that the forces, the treasures, and even the person of Henry 
might be depended on ; and this in a manner so generous 
on his side, that, instead of expecting to be rewarded, or 
even indemnified for them, he was voluntarily inclined to 
give the most positive assurances not to reserve to him- 
self a single town, nor the smallest district. This modera- 
tion, of which at last no one doubted, made a suitable 



40 THE GREAT DESIGN OF HENRY IV 

impression, especially when it was perceived to be so 
much the more generous, as there was sufficient to excite 
and satisfy the desires of all. And in the interim, before 
the solemn publication of this absolute renunciation, which 
was to have been made in the manifestoes that were pre- 
paring, Henry gave a proof of it, that was an absolute 
demonstration, to the pope. 

No one being ignorant that it was at least intended to 
deprive Spain of those of its usurpations which were the 
most manifestly unjust, Navarre and Roussillon would in- 
fallibly revert to France ; the king, therefore, voluntarily 
offered to exchange them for the two kingdoms of Naples 
and Sicily ; and at the same time to make a present of 
both to the pope and the republic of Venice. This, cer- 
tainly, was renouncing the most incontestable right he 
could have to any of the territories of which this crown 
was to be deprived ; and by submitting this affair as he 
did to the determination of the pope and the Venetians, 
he the more sensibly obliged them, as both the honour 
and profit which might arise therefrom would be in their 
favour. The pope, therefore, on the first proposition made 
to him, even anticipated Henry's intentions ; he imme- 
diately demanded, whether, as affairs were then situated, 
the several powers would approve his taking upon him the 
office of common mediator, to establish peace in Europe, 
and convert the continual wars among its several princes 
into a perpetual war against the Infidels, which was a 
part of the design he had been very careful to acquaint 
him with ; and the pope sufficiently showed that he was 
desirous nothing should be done without his participa- 
tion, and that he was still less disposed to refuse the 
advantage offered to him. 



THE GREAT DESIGN OF HENRY IV 41 

Paul v., when a favourable opportunity offered, ex- 
plained himself more openly on this head. Ubaldini, his 
nuncio, told the king, that his holiness for the confederacy 
against the house of Austria, would, on various pretences, 
engage to raise ten thousand foot, fifteen hundred horse, 
and ten cannons, provided his majesty would promise to 
defray the necessary expenses of their subsistence for three 
years ; would give all possible security for the cession of 
Naples and the other rights of homage according to 
promise ; and would sincerely consent to the other con- 
dition in regard to the treaty which he should think nec- 
essary to impose. These conditions, at least the principal 
of them, were, that only Catholics should be elected em- 
perors ; that the Roman religion should be maintained in 
all its rights, and the ecclesiastics in all their privileges 
and immunities ; and the Protestants should not be per- 
mitted to establish themselves in places where they were 
not established before the treaty. The king promised 
Ubaldini that he would religiously observe all these con- 
ditions ; and further, he relinquished to the pope the 
honour of being the arbitrator of all those regulations to 
be made in the establishment of the new republic. 

The removing of these difficulties in regard to the pope 
was of no inconsiderable consequence ; for his example 
would not fail to be of great force in determining the 
other Catholic powers, especially those of Italy. Nothing 
was neglected which might promote the favourable dis- 
positions in which they appeared to be, by punctually 
paying the cardinals and petty princes of Italy their pen- 
sions, and even by adding to them several other gratuities. 
The establishment of a new monarchy in Italy was the 
only pretence these petty courts had for not joining the 



42 THE GREAT DESIGN OF HENRY IV 

confederacy ; but this vain apprehension would be easily 
dissipated. The particular advantages which each would 
acquire, might alone have satisfied them in this respect ; 
but if not, all opposers might have been threatened with 
being declared after a certain time divested of all right to 
the proposed advantages, and even of all pretensions to 
the empire, or the elective kingdoms ; and that the repub- 
lics amongst them should be converted into sovereignties, 
and sovereignties into republics. There is but little proba- 
bility that any of them would even have hesitated what 
to do. The punishment of the first offender would have 
compelled the submission of all these petty states, who 
were besides sufficiently sensible of their impotence. But 
this method was not to be used but on failure of all others ; 
and even then, no opportunity would have been neglected 
of showing them favour. 

And now we are arrived at the point to which every- 
thing was advanced at the fatal moment of the death of 
Henry the Great ; and the following is a circumstantial 
detail of the forces for the war which all the parties con- 
cerned had, in conjunction with him, agreed to furnish : 
The contingents of the Kings of England, Sweden, and 
Denmark were each eight thousand foot, fifteen hundred 
horse, and eight cannons, to be raised and maintained in 
all respects at their expense at least for three years ; and 
this expense, reckoning ten livres a month for each foot 
soldier, thirty livres for each trooper, the pay of the offi- 
cers included, and the year to be composed of ten 
months, would amount for each of these states to three 
million three hundred and seventy thousand livres for three 
years ; the expense of the artillery, fifteen hundred livres a 
month for each piece being also included. The princes of 



THE GREAT DESIGN OF HENRY IV 



43 



Germany before mentioned were to furnish twenty-five thou- 
sand foot, ten thousand horse, and forty cannons ; they had 
themselves computed the expense at nine or ten millions for 
three years. The United Provinces, twelve thousand foot, 
two thousand horse, and ten cannons ; the expense twelve 
millions. Hungary, Bohemia, and the other Evangelics of 
Germany, the same number, and nearly at the same expense. 
The pope, ten thousand foot, fifteen hundred horse, and eight 
cannons. The Duke of Savoy, eighteen thousand foot, two 
thousand horse and twelve cannons. The Venetians, twelve 
thousand foot, two thousand horse, and twelve cannons. 
The expense of these last-mentioned armaments the king 
himself had engaged to defray. The total of all these for- 
eign forces, allowing for deficiencies, which might prob- 
ably have happened, would always have been at least one 
hundred thousand foot, from twenty to twenty-five thou- 
sand horse, and about one hundred and twenty cannons. 
The king on his side had actually on foot two good and 
well furnished armies ; the first, which he was to have com- 
manded in person, consisted of twenty thousand foot, all 
native French, eight thousand Switzers, four thousand 
lansquenets, or Walloons, five thousand horse, and twenty 
cannons. The second, to be commanded by Lesdiguieres, 
in the neighbourhood of the Alps, consisted of ten thousand 
foot, one thousand horse, and ten cannons ; besides a flying 
camp of four thousand foot, six hundred horse, and ten 
cannons ; and a reserve of two thousand foot, to garrison 
those places where they might be necessary.^ We will here 
make a general calculation of all these troops. 

1 There are some variations in our Memoirs in regard to the number 
of men, both in the royal grand army, which, in different places, is said 
to be composed of thirty, thirty-two, and thirty-six thousand foot, of four, 
five, six, and eight thousand horse, and from thirty to fifty cannons ; and 



44 THE GREAT DESIGN OF HENRY IV 

The twenty thousand foot, at twenty-one livres a month 
to each man, including the appointments of generals and 
officers, would by the month require four hundred and 
twenty thousand livres, and by the year five million 
and forty thousand livres ; the eight thousand Switzers and 
four thousand lansquenets, three millions ; the five thousand 
horse, at sixty livres a month to each, by the month, would 
require two hundred and forty thousand livres, and by the 
year, two million eight hundred and forty thousand livres ; 
this computation is made so high as sixty livres a month 
to each, because the pay of the officers, and particularly 
of the king's white troops, composed of a thousand men 
of the first rank in the kingdom, who served as volunteers, 
was therein included. The expense of the twenty large 
cannons, six culverins, and four demi-culverins, supposing 
all necessary furniture for them provided, would amount 
to three thousand six hundred livres a month for each 
piece ; the thirty together would consequently require one 
hundred and eight thousand livres. Extraordinary expenses 
and losses in regard to the provisions and ammunition for 
this army might be computed at one hundred and fifty 
thousand livres. 

Next, for expenses, whether ordinary or extraordinary, 
in spies, for the sick and wounded, and other unforeseen 
contingencies, computing at the highest a like sum of one 
million eight hundred thousand livres. To supply the de- 
ficiencies which might happen in the armies of the con- 
federate princes, to pay the pensions, and to answer other 

in that of the confederate princes of Germany, sometimes computed 
even at forty thousand foot, and twelve thousand horse ; similar differ- 
ences often occur in regard to those of Italy, and the other confederate 
princes ; neither are the calculations of the expense always the same, 
nor quite just in their estimates. 



THE GREAT DESIGN OF HENRY IV 45 

particular exigencies which might arise in the kingdom, 
three hundred thousand livres a month ; for the year, 
three milhon six hundred thousand livres. The army of 
Lesdiguieres would require three millions a year, and as 
much for each of the armies of the pope, the Venetians, 
and the Duke of Savoy. These last four articles together 
make twelve millions a year, which, added to the preced- 
ing sums, amount in the whole to about thirty million one 
hundred and sixty thousand livres a year. 

It remains only to triple this total for the three years 
during which it was supposed there might be occasion for 
the forces, and the whole amount will appear to be between 
ninety and ninety-one millions, which might nearly be 
necessary to defray the expenses of the intended war ; I 
say nearly, for in this calculation I have not included the 
flying camp, nor the two thousand men for garrisons : the 
first of these two articles, at the rate of eighteen livres a 
month to each foot soldier, and fifty livres to each trooper, 
would require a further sum of about one hundred and 
thirty thousand livres a month, which, for a year, would 
be one million five hundred thousand livres, and four 
million five hundred thousand livres for three years ; the 
second article, for the three years, would require about 
twelve hundred thousand livres. 

On a supposition that the expense of France on this 
occasion would not have amounted to more than between 
ninety and ninety-five millions, which supposition is far 
from being hazardous, because we have here computed 
everything at the highest it would bear, it is easy to show 
that, at the expiration of the three years, Henry would 
have remaining in his coffers thirty millions, over and 
above what would be expended. The total amount of all 



46 THE GREAT DESIGN OF HENRY IV 

the receipts from the several funds, formed and to be 
formed for these three years, being one hundred and 
twenty-one milhon five hundred and forty thousand hvres, 
as appears from the three estimates which I drew up and 
presented to his majesty. 

The first of these estimates, which contained only a list 
of the sums actually deposited in the Bastille, amounted to 
twenty-two million four hundred and sixty thousand livres, 
in several coffers, marked Phelipeaux, Puget, and Bouhier ; 
the second was another list of the sums actually due from 
the farmers, partisans, and receivers-general, which might 
be considered as in possession, and produced another total 
of eighteen million six hundred and thirteen thousand 
livres ; these two totals together made forty-one million 
seventy-three thousand livres, which the king would im- 
mediately have at his disposal. To acquire the rest of 
these hundred and twenty-one millions, I had recourse, in 
the third estimate, to no new taxations : the whole remain- 
der would arise solely from the offers of augmentation 
upon the several royal revenues which the farmers and 
partisans had made for a lease of three years, and from 
what the officers of justice and the finances had volunta- 
rily engaged to furnish, provided they might be permitted 
the free enjoyment of certain privileges ; so that in these 
one hundred and twenty-one millions I had not compre- 
hended the three years' receipts of the other royal reve- 
nues. And in case it were afterwards necessary to have 
recourse to means somewhat more burdensome, I had 
given the king another estimate, whereby, instead of these 
one hundred and twenty-one millions, it appeared that one 
hundred and seventy-five millions might have been raised. 
I also demonstrated that, upon any pressing emergency, 



THE GREAT DESIGN OF HENRY IV 47 

this kingdom could open itself resources of treasure that 
are almost innumerable. 

It was very much to be wished that the sums of money 
and the numbers of men to be furnished by the other con- 
federates would be equally well secured by such estimates ; 
but whatever deficiencies might have happened, having 
forty-one millions to distribute wherever it might be found 
necessary, what obstacles could Henry have to fear from a 
power who was known to be destitute of money, and even 
of troops ? no one being ignorant that the best and most 
numerous forces which Spain had in its service were 
drawn from Sicily, Naples, and Lombardy, or else were 
Germans, Switzers, and Walloons. 

Everything, therefore, concurring to promote success, 
and good magazines being placed in proper parts of the 
passage, the king was on the point of marching, at the 
head of his army, directly to Mezieres, from whence, tak- 
ing his route by Clinchamp, Orchimont, Beauraign, Offais, 
Longpre, &c., after having caused five forts to be erected 
in these quarters, and therein placed his two thousand 
men destined for that purpose, with the necessary provi- 
sions and ammunition, he would, near Duren and Stavelo, 
have joined the two armies which the princes of Germany 
and the United Provinces would have caused to march 
thither ; and then, beginning by occupying all those pas- 
sages through which the enemy might find entrance into 
the territories of Juliers and Cleves, these principalities, 
which were a pretext for the armament, would conse- 
quently have immediately submitted to him, and would 
have been sequestrated, till it should appear how the 
emperor and the King of Spain would act, in regard to 
the designs of the confederate princes. 



48 THE GREAT DESIGN OF HENRY IV 

This was the moment fixed on to pubhsh and make 
known throughout Europe the declarations, in form of 
manifestoes, which were to open the eyes of all in regard 
to their true interests, and the real motives which had 
caused Henry and the confederate princes thus to take up 
arms. These manifestoes were composed with the great- 
est care ; a spirit of justice, honesty, and good faith, of 
disinterestedness and good policy, were everywhere appar- 
ent in them ; and, without wholly discovering the several 
changes intended to be made in Europe, it was intimated 
that their common interest had thus compelled its princes 
to arm themselves, and not only to prevent the house of 
Austria from getting possession of Cleves, but also to 
divest her of the United Provinces, and of whatever else 
she unjustly possessed ; that their intentions were to dis- 
tribute these territories among such princes and states as 
were the weakest ; that the design was such as could not 
surely give occasion to a war in Europe ; that, though 
armed, the kings of France and the North rather chose 
to be mediators in the causes of complaint which Europe, 
through them, made against the house of Austria, and 
only sought to determine amicably all differences subsist- 
ing among the several princes ; and that, whatever was done 
on this occasion, should be not only with the unanimous 
consent of all these powers, but even of all their people, who 
were hereby invited to give in their opinions to the confed- 
erate princes : such also would have been the substance of 
the circular letters which Henry and the associated princes 
would at the same time have sent to all places subject to 
them; that so, the people being informed, and joining their 
suffrages, a universal cry from all parts of Christendom 
would have been raised against the house of Austria. 



THE GREAT DESIGN OF HENRY IV 49 

As it was determined to avoid with the utmost caution 
whatever might give umbrage to any one, and Henry being 
desirous to give still more convincing proofs to his confed- 
erates that to promote their true interests was his sole 
study and design, to the letters already mentioned he 
would have added others to be written to different courts, 
particularly to the electors of Cologne and Treves, the 
Bishops of Munster, Liege, and Paderborn, and the Duke 
and Duchess of Lorraine ; and this conduct would have 
been pursued, in regard even to our enemies, in the letters 
which were to be written to the archduke, and the infanta 
his wife, to the emperor himself, and to all the Austrian 
princes, requesting them, from the strongest and most 
pressing motives, to embrace the only right and reasonable 
party ; in all places, nothing would have been neglected to 
instruct, convince, and gain confidence ; the execution of 
all engagements, and the distribution or sequestration of 
whatever territories might require to be so disposed, would 
have been strictly, and even scrupulously observed ; force 
would never have been employed till arguments, entreaties, 
embassies and negotiations should have failed : finally, 
even in the use of arms, it would have been not as enemies, 
but pacifiers ; the queen would have advanced as far as 
Metz, accompanied by the whole court, and attended by 
such pomp and equipage as were suitable only to peace. 

Henry had projected a new method of discipline in his 
camp, which very probably would have produced the good 
effects intended by it, especially if his example had been 
imitated by the other princes his allies. He intended to 
have created four marshals of France, or at least four 
camp marshals, whose sole care should have been to main- 
tain universal order, discipline, and subordination. The 



50 THE GREAT DESIGN OF HENRY IV 

first of these would have had the inspection of the cavalry, 
the second of the French infantry, the third of the foreign 
forces, and the fourth of whatever concerned the artillery, 
ammunition, and provisions ; and the king would have 
required an exact and regular account from these four offi- 
cers of whatever was transacted by them in their respec- 
tive divisions. He applied himself with equal ardor to 
cause all military virtues to be revered and honoured in his 
army, by granting all employs and places of trust to merit 
only, by preferring good officers, by rewarding the soldiers, 
by punishing blasphemies and other impious language, by 
showing a regard both for his own troops and those of his 
confederates, by stifling a spirit of discord, caused by a 
difference of religion ; and, finally, by uniting emulation 
with that harmony of sentiments which contributes more 
than all the rest to obtain victory. 

The consequence of this enterprise, with regard to war, 
would have depended on the manner in which the em- 
peror and the King of Spain should receive the propo- 
sitions and reply to the manifestoes of the confederate 
princes ; it seems probable that the emperor, submitting 
to force, would have consented to everything. I am even 
persuaded he would have been the first to demand an 
amicable interview with the King of France, that he 
might at least extricate himself with honour from the diffi- 
culties in which he would have been involved ; and he 
would probably have been satisfied with assurances that 
the imperial dignity, with all its rights and prerogatives, 
should be secured to him for his life. The archdukes had 
made great advances ; they engaged to permit the king, 
with all his troops, to enter their territories and towns, 
provided they committed no hostilities in them, and paid 



THE GREAT DESIGN OF HENRY IV 51 

punctually, in all places, for whatever they required. If 
these appearances were not deceitful, Spain, being aban- 
doned by all, must, though unwillingly, have submitted to 
the will of its conquerors. 

But it may be supposed that all the branches of the 
house of Austria would, on this occasion, have united, 
and, in defence of their common interests, would have 
used all the efforts of which they were capable. In this 
case, Henry and the confederate princes, by declaring war 
in form against their enemies, and depriving the Span- 
iards of all communications, especially with the Low Coun- 
tries, and having, as we have said, united all their forces, 
given audience to the princes of Germany, promised assist- 
ance to the people of Hungary and Bohemia who should 
come to implore it of them, and finally secured the terri- 
tory of Cleves, — these princes, I say, would then have 
caused their three armies to advance towards Basle and 
Strasbourg to support the Switzers, who, after having, for 
form's sake, asked leave of the emperor, would have de- 
clared for the union. The United Provinces, thougfi at a 
considerable distance from these armies, would yet have 
been sufficiently defended by the flying camp, which 
Henry would have caused to advance towards them ; by 
the arms of England and the North, to whose protection 
they would be entrusted ; by the care which at first would 
have been taken to get possession of Charlemont, Maes- 
tricht, Namur, and other places near the Meuse, and 
finally by the naval forces of these provinces, which, in 
conjunction with those of England, would have reigned 
absolute masters at sea. 

These measures being taken, the war could have been 
waged only in Italy or Germany ; and supposing it to have 



52 THE GREAT DESIGN OF HENRY IV 

been in the former, the three armies of Henry, the Prince 
of Orange, and the Princes of Germany, quitting Franche- 
Comte, after having fortified it in the same manner as the 
Low Countries, by a small body of troops, would have 
marched with their forces towards the Alps, where they 
would have been joined by those of Lesdiguieres, the 
pope, the Venetians, and the Duke of Savoy, who then 
would have declared themselves openly, — the Duke of 
Savoy, by requiring a portion for his duchess, equal to 
what had been given to the Infanta Isabella, and the other 
powers by demanding the execution of the agreement in 
regard to Navarre, Naples, and Sicily, and thus, from all 
parts of Europe, war would be declared against Spain. If 
the enemy should appear inclined to draw the war into 
Germany, then the confederates, having left a considerable 
number of troops in Italy, would have penetrated even 
into the heart of Germany, where, from Hungary and 
Bohemia, they would have been strengthened by those 
powerful succours which were there preparing. 

The other events, in consequence of these dispositions, 
can only be conjectured, because they would greatly de- 
pend on the degree of alacrity with which the enemy 
should oppose the rapidity of our conquests, and on the 
readiness with which the confederates, especially those at 
the extremity of Germany, should make good their engage- 
ments. Nevertheless, I am persuaded, that from the dis- 
positions, as here laid down, there are none but must 
regard the house of Austria as struck by the blow whose 
force was for ever to annihilate its power, and open a pas- 
sage to the execution of the other projected designs, to 
which this attack could only be considered as the prelim- 
inary. I will add, too (and here the voice of all Europe 



THE GREAT DESIGN OF HENRY IV 53 

will vindicate me from the imputation of partiality), that 
if the force necessary to render such an enterprise success- 
ful does always depend on the person of the chief who 
conducts it, this could not have been better conferred than 
upon Henry the Great. With a valour alone capable of 
surmounting the greatest difficulties, and a presence of 
mind which neither neglected nor lost any opportunities 
of advantage ; with a prudence which, without precipi- 
tating anything, or attempting too many things at a time, 
could regularly connect them together, and perfectly knew 
what might and what might not be the result of time ; 
with a consummate experience ; and, finally, with all those 
other great qualifications, whether as a warrior or politi- 
cian, which were so remarkable in this prince, — what is 
there which might not have been obtained ? This was the 
meaning of that modest device which this great king 
caused to be inscribed on some of the last medals that 
were struck under his reign : Nil sine concilia. 



PASSAGES FROM SULLY'S MEMOIRS ILLUS- 
TRATING THE HISTORY OF THE 
GREAT DESIGN 



I 



Conference between Sully and Queen Elizabeth, 
AT Dover, in i6oi^ 

The Queen of England hearing the king was at Calais, 
thought it a favourable opportunity to satisfy her impatience 
of seeing and embracing her best friend. Henry was not 
less desirous of this interview, that he might confer with 
the queen upon the affairs of Europe in general, as well 
as on their own in particular, especially those which had 
been hinted to, him by the English and Dutch ambassa- 
dors when he was at Nantes. Elizabeth first wrote him a 
letter equally polite and full of offers of service ; she after- 
wards made him the usual compliments, and repeated 
those assurances by the Lord Edmond,^ whom she des- 
patched to Calais, till she herself could arrive at Dover, 
from whence she sent M. de Stafford Lord Sidney,^ with 
other letters. 

1 From the Twelfth Book of Sully's Memoirs. 

2 He means Sir Thomas Edmondes. (See Birch's Negotiations, 
p. 200 ; Camden, &c.) — Ed. 

s The person here styled " Stafford Lord Sidney," was Sir Robert 
Sydney, the younger brother of the illustrious Sir Philip. He was not a 
peer till after the accession of James, who first created him Baron Syd- 
ney of Penshurst, next Viscount Lisle, and lastly Earl of Leicester. 
Why he is called Stafford in the text it is not easy to say, unless we 
could suppose the author has confounded him with Sir Edward Stafford, 
ambassador in France in 1588. — Ed. 

54 



SULLY'S CONFERENCE WITH ELIZABETH 55 

Henry resolving not to be outdone in complaisance, 
answered these advances in a manner that showed at once 
his respect for Elizabeth, and his esteem and admiration 
for her character. This intercourse continued a long time, 
to the great mortification of the Spaniards, whose jealousy 
was strongly excited by the proximity and close correspond- 
ence of the two sovereigns. Of all the letters written by 
them on this occasion, I possess only one of these which 
Elizabeth wrote to the king : this, because it was the occa- 
sion of the voyage I made to this princess, I have kept in 
my hands ; it was as follows : 

'' My very dear and well-beloved Brother, — I had 
always considered the condition of sovereigns to be the 
most happy, and that they were the least subject to meet 
with obstacles in the way of their just and legitimate 
desires ; but our residence in two places so near each 
other makes me begin to think, that those of high as well 
as of middle rank often meet with thorns and difficulties, 
since from certain causes and considerations, rather to 
satisfy others than ourselves, we are both prevented from 
crossing the sea ; for I had promised myself the happi- 
ness of embracing you, as being your very loyal sister and 
faithful ally, and you my very dear brother whom I love 
and honour above everything in this world, whose incom- 
parable virtues (to tell you my real sentiments) I admire, 
and particularly your valour in arms, and politeness and 
gallantry amongst the fair sex. I have something of con- 
sequence to communicate to you, which I can neither write 
nor confide to any of your ministers, nor my own at pres- 
ent, so that, in expectation of a more convenient opportu- 
nity, I shall return to London in a few days. That God may 



56 THE GREAT DESIGN OF HENRY IV 

continue to you, my very dear and well-beloved brother, 
his holy favours and blessing, is the prayer of your most 
affectionate sister and loyal ally — Elizabeth." ^ 

When the king received this letter, he read it over two 
or three times with great satisfaction, and took particular 
notice of the latter part of it ; but being at a loss how to 
interpret it, he sent Secretary Feret for me, and as soon 
as I went to him, he said to me, '' I have just received a 
letter from my good sister the Queen of England, whom 
you esteem so highly, more full of cajoleries than ever; 
pray see if, from your knowledge of her character, you can 
comprehend better than I can what she means by the con- 
clusion of this letter." Having read it over several times, 

1 This letter, and this whole relation of the Duke of Sully's concern- 
ing Henry the Fourth's journey to Calais, and Elizabeth's to Dover, 
appear sufficient, without any other reflections, to show the error of all 
those various judgments current at that time, and which have been 
mentioned by different historians concerning these two potentates. It 
was said Elizabeth proposed to Henry, either that he should come to 
Dover, or at least confer with her in a vessel half-way between these 
two towns, and that this proposal concealed a snare in which Elizabeth 
hoped to entrap Henry, by seizing upon his person in the interview, 
and keeping him prisoner till he restored Calais, and that Henry ex- 
cused himself from complying with her request, only because he sus- 
pected the design ; others say, because his fears of the sea were so 
great, that he durst not venture into a vessel. No one suspected the 
true motive for proposing this interview, which was the occasion of all 
those letters that passed between them, and caused the Duke of Sully 
to make the secret voyage to Dover, of which he here gives an account. 
Siri, on this occasion, builds up the resentment which he supposes 
Elizabeth always preserved, both at the peace of Vervins and the sur- 
render of Calais, as well as her fear lest Henry should aggrandise him- 
self too much, and on the jealousy which the English entertained of 
the French. (Mem. Recond. vol. i. pp. 130, 150, &c.) But this writer, so 
well acquainted with foreign negotiations, especially those of Italy and 
Spain, is not right, neither in the facts nor the opinions which he pro- 
duces concerning the interior of our court and councils under the reign 
of Henry IV. He knew neither this prince nor the Duke of Sully. 



SULLY'S CONFERENCE WITH ELIZABETH 57 

but being obliged to confess I could not comprehend it, 
''Well, my friend," said his majesty, " I will not conceal 
from you that I am very anxious to know what this prin- 
cess has in view by these expressions, for, in my opinion, 
she has not employed them without very particular reasons : 
I have therefore thought of an expedient by which, per- 
haps, we may come to a knowledge of her meaning, with- 
out doing anything that can give offence to either party ; 
this is, for you to set out to-morrow morning for Dover, 
as if by your own inclination, and on your arrival there, to 
make show of not wishing to stop, but of passing on to 
London, for the purpose of seeing the country ; so that, 
should you meet with any person of your acquaintance, 
the queen may be informed that you are in Dover to watch 
what she will do ; and should she send for you, it is prob- 
able you may discover some part of her sentiments in the 
course of your conversation together." 

I accordingly embarked early next morning, in a small 
boat, with very few attendants, without mentioning my 
journey to any one, and reached Dover about ten o'clock, 
where I saw a great number of people, some embarking, 
others landing, and many walking upon the beach ; six or 
seven of the latter advanced towards me, one of whom was 
Lord Sidney, who, having five or six days before seen me 
at Calais, immediately recognised me, and ran to embrace 
me : with him were Cobham, Raleigh, and Griffin, and 
they were soon after joined by the Earls of Devonshire 
and Pembroke, who, after mutual civilities and compli- 
ments, asked me if I were come to see the queen on 
the part of my master. I told them I was not, and even 
assured them that the king knew nothing of my voyage ; 
I likewise entreated them not to mention it to the queen, 



58 THE GREAT DESIGN OF HENRY IV 

for not having had any intention of paying my respects to 
her, I had no letter to present, my desire being only to 
make a short tour incognito to London. These gentlemen 
replied, smiling, that I had taken a useless precaution, for 
that probably the guardship had already given a signal of 
my arrival, and that I might quickly expect to see a mes- 
senger from the queen, who would not suffer me to pass 
in this manner, she having but three days ago spoke of 
me publicly, and in very obliging terms. I affected to be 
extremely concerned at this unlucky accident, but to hope, 
nevertheless, that I might still pass undiscovered, provided 
that these gentlemen would be secret as to the place where 
I was to lodge ; from whence, I assured them, I would 
immediately depart as soon as I had taken a little refresh- 
ment : saying this, I left them abruptly, and had but just 
entered my apartment, and spoke a few words to one of 
my secretaries, when I heard somebody behind me tell me 
that he arrested me as a prisoner to the queen. This was 
the captain of her majesty's guards, whom I embraced, and 
answered, smiling, that I should esteem such imprisonment 
a great honour. He had orders to conduct me directly to 
the queen ; I therefore followed him. As soon as Elizabeth 
perceived me, she exclaimed, '' Well ! Monsieur de Rosny, 
and do you thus break our fences and pass on without 
coming to see me .? I am greatly surprised at it, for I 
thought you bore me more affection than any of my own 
servants, and I am persuaded that I have given you no 
cause to change those sentiments." I replied, that her 
majesty had always so highly honoured me, and testified so 
much good-will towards me, that I loved and honoured her 
for her excellent virtues, and would always serve her most 
humbly, not merely from my own inclination, but also from 



SULLY'S CONFERENCE WITH ELIZABETH 59 

knowing that in doing so I was rendering an acceptable 
service to my king. After many more expressions of this 
sort, the queen rephed, '' Well, Monsieur de Rosny, to 
give you a proof that I believe all you have told me of the 
good-will of the king my brother, and of your own, I will 
speak with you on the subject of the last letter I wrote to 
him ; though, perhaps, you have seen it, for Stafford ^ and 
Edmondes tell me that the king conceals few of his se- 
crets from you." On telling her I was not ignorant of the 
letter, she immediately answered that she was glad of it, 
and also that I had crossed the sea, because she had no 
difficulty to tell me freely what she hinted at in the con- 
clusion of her letter. She then drew me aside, and con- 
versed with me a long time on the greater part of the 
events which had happened since the peace of Vervins 
(too long to be repeated here), and concluded with asking 
if her good brother the king's affairs were now in a better 
state than in 1 598, and if he were in a condition to begin, 
in good earnest, the great design which she had proposed 
from that time ? To this I replied, that, although since 
that period the king had had many weighty affairs to settle, 
as well in relation to the war in Savoy as to several plots 
in the heart of his kingdom, which were not yet entirely 
destroyed, all which had occasioned very heavy expenses, 
yet I had nevertheless so managed the revenue, and other 
departments of the state, that a numerous artillery had 
been provided, as well as abundance of stores and provi- 
sions, and even of money ; but that all this, however, was 
not sufficient to advise him to bear alone the burthen of an 
open war against the whole house of Austria, which was 
so powerful, that it would be in vain to attack it partially ; 

1 This must be a mistake for Sydney. (See note, p. 54.) 



6o THE GREAT DESIGN OF HENRY IV 

that it even appeared to me that the assistance of Eng- 
land and the States only was by no means sufficient for 
the commencement of so great a work, but that it was 
absolutely necessary to endeavour to form a coalition of 
all the other kings, princes, republics, and people, who 
dreaded the tyranny of that house, or would profit by its 
humiliation. The queen here told me she was very happy 
she had heard my sentiments on this subject, and the 
more so as she believed that I had not said so much with- 
out knowing something of the intentions of the king her 
brother, with which, in this case, hers would perfectly 
agree, by only adding certain conditions, which she con- 
sidered as absolutely necessary to prevent misunderstand- 
ing and distrust among the coalesced powers ; these, in 
her opinion, would be, to proportion so well the desires of 
each, that none might be entertained either prejudicial or 
disagreeable to any of the rest, which would inevitably 
happen if the more powerful wished to take the greatest 
share of the conquests and the distribution of them ; and 
that above all things it was necessary that neither her 
brother the King of France, nor the King of Scotland, 
who would certainly inherit her crown, nor those of Den- 
mark and Sweden, who might become very powerful both 
by land and sea, nor herself, consequently, should pretend 
to claim any portion of the seventeen provinces of the 
Low Countries, nor any place in their neighbourhood ; 
'' For, to conceal nothing from you," continued the queen, 
'' if my brother the King of France should think of mak- 
ing himself proprietor, or even only feudal-lord of the 
United Provinces, I should never consent to it, but enter- 
tain a most violent jealousy of him ; nor should I blame 
him if, giving him the same occasion, he should have the 



SULLY'S CONFERENCE WITH ELIZABETH 6l 

same fears of me : and so of all the other states and 
dignities of which the ambitious house of Austria may 
be deprived." 

These were not the only reflections made by the Queen 
of England ; she said many other things, which appeared 
to me so just and sensible, that I was filled with astonish- 
ment and admiration. It is not unusual to behold princes 
form great designs ; their sphere of action so forcibly in- 
clines them to this, that it is only necessary to warn them 
of the extreme, which is, the projecting what their powers 
are so little proportioned to perform, that they scarce ever 
find themselves able to execute the half of what they pur- 
pose ; but to be able to distinguish and form only such as 
are reasonable ; wisely to regulate the conduct of them ; 
to foresee and guard against all obstacles in such a man- 
ner that, when they happen, nothing more will be neces- 
sary than to apply the remedies prepared long before ; 
this is what few princes are capable of. Ignorance, pros- 
perity, luxury, vanity, nay, even fear and indolence, daily 
produce schemes, to execute which there is not the least 
possibility. Another cause of surprise to me was, that 
Elizabeth and Henry, having never conferred together on 
their political project, should agree so exactly in all their 
ideas as not to differ even in the most minute particulars.^ 

1 As Hume has quoted the above passage, I will here show what 
authority the modern compiler of these Memoirs had for inserting it, 
by giving the words as they stand in the original Memoirs of Sully; 
they will, moreover, afford another instance how strangely that work 
has been in many instances garbled and misrepresented : Sully {i.e. his 
secretaries) says, that, after Elizabeth had asked him if, from his silence, 
he did not comprehend, or approve of her schemes, he replied in the 
following words : " Madam, my silence does not proceed from disap- 
probation of what you have told me, but, on the contrary, from my 
admiration of the excellence of your mind, your exalted courage, your 
foresight, and your judgment; nor can I deny that I have frequently made 



62 THE GREAT DESIGN OF HENRY IV 

The queen observing my eyes were attentively fixed on 
her without speaking, imagined she had expressed herself so 
confusedly in something she had said, that I was unable 
to comprehend her meaning. But when I ingenuously con- 
fessed to her the true cause of my silence and surprise, she 
then, without scruple, entered into the most minute parts 
of the design : but as I shall have an ample occasion to 
treat of this, in relating the great schemes which were pre- 
vented by the untimely death of Henry IV., I shall not 
trouble the reader with useless repetitions, but in this place 
just show the five principal points to which her majesty 
reduced so extensive a scheme, as from the sequel of these 
Memoirs this will appear to have been. The first was, to 
restore Germany to its ancient liberty, in respect to the 
election of its emperors, and the nomination of a king of 
the Romans. The second, to render the United Provinces 
absolutely independent of Spain ; and to form them into 
a republic, by annexing to them, if necessary, some prov- 
inces dismembered from Germany. The third, to do the 
same in regard to Switzerland, by incorporating with it 
some of the adjacent provinces, particularly Alsace and 
Franche-Comte. The fourth, to divide all Christendom 
into a certain number of powers, as equal as might be. 
The fifth, to reduce all the various religions in it under 

similar propositions to the king my master, and that I have often found 
him disposed to adopt plans conformable to those your majesty has just 
mentioned to me." This is all the authority for the passage in the text, 
which, to say nothing of its improbability, the compiler ought to have 
seen was in some degree contradicted by what goes before, where the 
queen, at the beginning of her conversation, asks Sully if the king's 
affairs were in a better state than in 1598, and if he were in a condition 
to begin, in good earnest, the great design which she had proposed 
ever since that period. This certainly implies that Henry knew what 
that great design was, and that some communications had been made 
respecting it. — Ed. 



SULLY'S CONFERENCE WITH JAMES I 63 

those three which should appear to be most numerous and 
considerable in Europe. 

Our conference was very long : I cannot bestow praises 
upon the Queen of England that would be equal to the 
merit which I discovered in her in this short time, both as 
to the qualities of the heart and the understanding. I gave 
an exact relation of everything that passed between us to 
the king, who very highly approved of all she had said to 
me. Their majesties corresponded by letter during the 
rest of the time they stayed at Dover and Calais. All pre- 
liminaries were agreed on ; measures were taken even on 
the grand object of the design, but with such secrecy, that 
the whole of this affair remained to the death of the king, 
and even much longer, among the number of those on 
which only various and uncertain conjectures were formed. ^ 

II 

Conference between Sully and James I, 
AT London, in 1603^ 

I embraced this opportunity to introduce into our con- 
versation some general hints of a project, by which, with 
the assistance of his Britannic majesty, the tranquillity of 
all Europe might be secured. Having said this, I remained 
silent, as though I had been apprehensive of fatiguing him 
by too long a discourse : but I knew the curiosity of James 
would be excited by the little I had said ; accordingly, he 

1 Camden and other writers of this period seem not to have known 
of the Marquis of Rosny's visit : the former says, when the queen heard 
that Henry was at Calais, she sent over to him Sir Thomas Edmondes to 
see him, and congratulate him upon his health ; he again, to acknowledge 
this courtesy, sent to the queen Marshal Biron, &c. — Ed. 

2 From the Fifteenth Book of Sully's Memoirs. 



64 THE GREAT DESIGN OF HENRY IV 

replied that my discourse had not appeared tedious to him, 
but that it would be proper to know what o'clock it was. 
He went out, and asked some of his courtiers whom he 
found at the end of the gallery, and they telling him that 
it was not yet three, ''Well, Sir," said the king to me, 
returning, '' I will break off the party for the chase which 
I had made for this day, that I may hear you to the end, 
and this employment will, I am persuaded, be of more 
service to me than the other." 

The reason that induced me to hazard a step of such 
consequence as that of communicating to King James the 
great designs upon Spain and all Europe, which had been 
concerted between Henry and Elizabeth, was, that being 
persuaded this prince was already of himself inclined to 
the alliance with France, he only wanted to be determined 
in this resolution from some great and noble motive ; and 
because, on the other side, his ministers constantly brought 
him back to their manner of thinking, apparently because 
he could not support himself against them, from a persua- 
sion that they opposed his sentiments only through igno- 
rance of them. However, this did not prevent my taking the 
following precaution, which I judged to be very necessary. 

I resumed the discourse, and told his majesty that, with- 
out doubt, he had sometimes thought, and with good rea- 
son, that a man in possession of the places and honours 
with which I was known to be invested, never quitted his 
post but on very urgent occasions ; that this was my case ; 
that though my commission was only to require a union 
between France and England, yet, nevertheless, from the 
opinion I had conceived of his genius and abilities, which 
fame had not been silent in reporting, I had resolved, be- 
fore I quitted the kingdom, to discourse with his Britannic 



SULLY'S CONFERENCE WITH JAMES I 65 

majesty en something infinitely more considerable ; but 
that what I had to acquaint him with was of such a 
nature that I could not reveal it to him without exposing 
myself to ruin, unless he would engage by the most sol- 
emn oath to keep it a secret. James, who listened to me 
with a profound attention, hesitated, however, at taking 
the oath which I required ; and, to render it unnecessary, 
he endeavoured himself to discover what I could have so 
interesting to communicate to him. But finding that my 
answers to the different questions which he successively 
asked me gave him not the least intimation of the affair, 
he satisfied me at last by the most sacred and solemn of 
all oaths : I mean that of the holy sacrament. 

Though I had now nothing to fear from his indiscre- 
tion, I however carefully weighed all my words ; and, be- 
ginning with an article in which I knew the King of 
England was most interested — I mean religion, — I told 
him, that, however I might appear to him engaged in 
worldly honours and affairs, and how indifferent soever he 
might perhaps have supposed me to be in matters of reli- 
gion, yet it was no less certain that I was attached to mine, 
even so much as to prefer it to my family, fortune, coun- 
try, and even king ; that I had neglected nothing which 
might incline the king my master to establish it in France 
upon solid foundations, being under great apprehensions 
lest it might one day be overwhelmed by so powerful a 
faction as that of a union of the pope, the Emperor, Spain, 
the archdukes, the Catholic princes of Germany, and so 
many other states and communities interested in its sup- 
pression ; that my success hitherto had been tolerable ; 
but that, perhaps, I was indebted for it only to junctures 
purely political, which had engaged Henry in a party- 



66 THE GREAT DESIGN OF HENRY IV 

opposed to the house of Austria. That because these cir- 
cumstances might change, or because I, who was the only 
person that would use any endeavours to make Henry con- 
tinue firm in this political plan, might lose my place and 
his favour, I did not see how the King of France could 
resist a party which both his religion and the example of 
others would call upon him to embrace. That this consid- 
eration had long inspired me with the thoughts of finding 
a person for the execution of this design, who, by his rank 
and power, would be more proper than myself to accom- 
plish it, and fix Henry in his sentiments. That having 
found all that I had sought for in the prince to whom I 
had the honour of speaking, it had not been difficult to 
make my choice. In a word, that it depended only upon 
himself to immortalise his memory, and become the arbiter 
of the fate of Europe, by a design to which he would always 
appear to have put the finishing hand, though he might 
not be more concerned in the execution than his most 
Christian majesty. 

There remained only to explain to James the nature of 
this design, of which, at first, I gave nothing further than 
a general idea, under that of a project for an association 
of all the princes and states in Europe, whose interest it 
was to diminish the power of the house of Austria, the 
foundation of which should be an offensive and defensive 
alliance between France, England, and Holland, cemented 
by the closest union of the two royal houses of Bourbon 
and Stuart. I represented this association in a light which 
showed it might be very easily formed. There was not the 
least difficulty in regard to Denmark, Sweden, in a word, 
to all the Protestant princes and states ; and it might be 
rendered sufficiently advantageous for the Catholic princes 



SULLY'S CONFERENCE WITH JAMES I 6/ 

also to induce them to engage in it : for example, the tur- 
bulent and ambitious disposition of the Duke of Savoy 
might be soothed with hopes of obtaining the title of king ; 
and the princes of Germany, with promises to distribute 
among them those parts of it which the house of Austria 
possessed, as Bohemia, Austria, Hungary, Moravia, Sile- 
sia, &c., and to reestablish their ancient privileges : even 
the pope himself might be gained, by granting him the 
property of those countries of which he only possessed the 
feodality. In regard to the King of France, though I en- 
deavoured to persuade James that hitherto he had had no 
concern in this project, which I pretended was entirely of 
my own forming, I, however, said, that when I should 
have communicated it to him, I could safely engage he 
would have no thoughts either of retaining any conquests 
which might be made, or being recompensed for them ; 
though, according to all appearances, the greatest part of 
the burden would fall upon him, as well by the expenses 
necessary for carrying on the enterprise, as by his own 
personal services. I imagined it was most proper to give 
the affair this turn in regard to Henry, that he might not 
be under too absolute an obligation. 

The King of England immediately started some objec- 
tions upon the difficulty of uniting so many different princes 
so differently disposed ; the same nearly which Henry had 
made when we had last discoursed upon it at Montglat, 
upon his return from Metz : though, .from the slight sketch 
which I had given him of the design, he, however, appeared 
highly to approve it, and expressed a desire of being mone 
circumstantially informed of it. In conformity with this 
desire, the following is the substance of what I said to his 
Britannic majesty. 



68 THE GREAT DESIGN OF HENRY IV 

Europe is divided into two factions, which are not so 
justly distinguished by their different rehgions (because 
the Catholics and Protestants are confounded together in 
almost all places) as they are by their political interests ; 
the first is composed of the Pope, the Emperor, Spain, 
Spanish Flanders, part of the princes and towns of Ger- 
many and Switzerland, Savoy, the Catholic States of Italy, 
namely, Florence, Ferrara, Mantua, Modena, Parma, Genoa, 
Lucca, &c. Herein likewise must be comprised the Cath- 
olics dispersed in other parts of Europe, at the head of 
which may be placed the turbulent order of Jesuits, whose 
views, no doubt, are to subject everything to the Spanish 
monarchy. The second includes the Kings of France, 
England, Scotland, Ireland, Denmark, and Sweden ; the 
Republic of Venice, the United Provinces, and the other 
part of the princes and towns of Germany and Switzerland : 
I do not take in Poland, Prussia, Livonia, Muscovy and 
Transylvania, though these countries are subject to the 
Christian religion, because the wars in which they are al- 
most continually engaged with the Turks and Tartars, 
render them in some manner foreign in regard to those of 
the western part of Europe. 

Were the power to be estimated in proportion to the 
pomp of titles, the extent of territories, and the number of 
inhabitants, it appears, on the slightest glance, not very 
favourable to the second of these factions, and the superi- 
ority would apparently- be determined in favour of the first ; 
nevertheless, nothing is more erroneous than such an opin- 
ion, which may thus be proved : Spain, which must here 
be named the first of her faction (though in rank and dig- 
nity she is only the third), because she is in reality the 
soul of it — Spain, I say, including her dominions in the 



SULLY'S CONFERENCE WITH JAMES I 69 

East and West Indies, docs indeed possess an extent of 
territory as large as Turkey and Persia together. But if it 
be true (and it cannot be doubted) that the New World, in 
recompense of its gold and other riches, deprives Spain 
both of her ships and inhabitants, this immense extent of 
territory, instead of being serviceable, is burthensome. 

If we consider the other powers of this party, we shall 
everywhere find reason to diminish our ordinary ideas. The 
pope seems firmly attached to Spain ; and, surrounded as 
he is on all sides by this formidable power, and having no 
reason to expect succours from any of the other Catholic 
princes, it is, no doubt, his interest to be so. But as he does, 
in fact, consider his situation as but little different from real 
servitude ; and as he is not ignorant that Spain and the 
Jesuits only make a vain appearance of supporting his 
authority, it may, doubtless, be concluded, he only wants 
an opportunity to free himself from the Spanish yoke, and 
that he would readily embrace a party which should offer 
to render him their service, without running any great risk ; 
and Spain has in reality this opinion of him. 

In regard to the Emperor, he has nothing in common 
with Spain except his name, which seems only to increase 
the jealousies and quarrels which so frequently arise be- 
tween these two branches of the Austrian power : besides, 
what is his power ? It consists merely in his title. Hungary, 
Bohemia, Austria, and other neighbouring countries, are 
little better than empty names. Exposed as he is, on one 
side, to the incursions of the formidable armies of the Grand 
Seignior ; liable, on the other, to see the territories under 
his dominion tear themselves in pieces, by the multiplicity 
and diversity of the religions which they contain ; under 
continual apprehensions, also, lest the electoral princes 



JO THE GREAT DESIGN OF HENRY IV 

should rise and make an . attempt to regain their ancient 
privileges. Indeed, the Emperor, at the present day, all 
things justly considered, might perhaps be classed among 
the most inconsiderable of the European Powers : besides, 
this Austrian branch appears to me so destitute of good 
subjects, that if it hath not soon a prince, either brave or 
wise enough to unite the different members of which Ger- 
many is composed, it will have everything to fear from the 
princes of its circles, whose only aim is to procure the 
restoration of their liberty in religion and election. I do 
not except even the Elector of Saxony, though he appears 
the more sincerely attached to the Emperor, as to him of 
whom he holds his principality, because it is evident his 
religion must, sooner or later, set him at variance with his 
benefactor. But supposing the Emperor to receive all the 
returns of gratitude which he can expect from this Elector, 
it will amount to nothing, or but very little, so long as he 
shall be under apprehensions from the branch of John 
Frederick, whom he has deprived of this electorate. 

Thus, from a thorough examination of all particulars, it 
appears, that almost all the powers on which Spain seems 
to depend for aid, are either but little attached to her, or 
capable of doing her but little service. No one is ignorant 
that the general view of the princes and cities both of Ger- 
many and Switzerland is to deliver themselves from the 
dominion of the Emperor, and even to aggrandise them- 
selves at his expense. Nor has he any greater dependance 
on the ecclesiastical princes than on the others. A foreign 
emperor is what they most wish, provided he is not a Prot- 
estant. Nothing could give the archdukes, though Span- 
iards, a greater pleasure than a regulation by which they 
should become sovereigns in Flanders, independent of 



SULLY'S CONFERENCE WITH JAMES I J\ 

Spain ; wear)^ at length of being only her servants. It 
is the fear of France alone that binds the Duke of Savoy 
to the Spaniards ; for he naturally hates them, and has 
never forgiven the King of Spain for doing so much less 
for the daughter which he bestowed upon him than for her 
younger sister. As to Italy, it need only be observed, that 
it will be obliged to acquiesce in the will of the stronger 
party. 

It is therefore certain, that the second of the factions 
here described has nothing to fear, provided it understands 
its own interests well enough to continue in. a constant 
state of union. Now it is also certain, that in this scheme 
these so natural motives to disunion do not occur ; and 
that all of them, even that caused by the difference of 
religion, which in some sort is the only one, ought to 
give place to the hatred against Spain, which is the great 
and common motive by which these powers are animated. 
Where is the prince, in the least jealous of his glory, who 
would refuse to enter into an association strengthened by 
four such powerful kings as those of France, England, 
Sweden, and Denmark, closely united t It was a saying 
of Elizabeth, that nothing could resist these four powers, 
when in strict alliance with each other. 

These truths being admitted, it only remains to examine 
by what methods the house of Austria may be reduced to 
the monarchy of Spain, and to that monarchy only. These 
methods consist either in artifice or force, and I have two 
for each of them. The first of the secret methods is, to 
divest the house of Austria of the Indies, Spain having no 
more right to prohibit the rest of the Europeans from an 
intercourse with those countries, than she has to destroy 
their natural inhabitants ; and all the nations of Europe 



72 THE GREAT DESIGN OF HENRY IV 

having also a liberty to make establishments in the newly 
discovered countries as soon as they have passed the line, 
this enterprise would therefore be easily executed, only by 
equipping three fleets, each containing eight thousand men, 
all provided and victualled for six months : England to 
furnish the ships, Flanders the artillery and ammunition, 
and France, as the most powerful, the money and soldiers. 
There would be no occasion for any other agreement than 
that the conquered countries should be equally divided. 

During this, the second of these means should be se- 
cretly prepared, upon occasion of the succession to Cleves, 
and the death of the Emperor, which cannot be far dis- 
tant, in such manner, that under favour of the opportu- 
nities which these two incidents might furnish, reasons 
might be found to divest the house of Austria of the 
empire, and her other dependencies in Germany, and 
therein to restore the ancient freedom of election. 

The first of the two open and declared means is, in 
conjunction to take up arms, and drive the Spaniards en- 
tirely out of Flanders, in order to erect this State into a 
free and independent republic, bearing only the title of a 
member of the empire ; and this, when the forces of the 
allies are considered, will not be found difficult. The Uni- 
ted Provinces, comprehending in them Liege, Juliers, and 
Cleves, form a triangle : the first side of which, from Calais 
to Embden, is entirely towards the sea ; the second is 
bounded by France, viz., by Picardy, as far as the Somme, 
and by the country of Messin as far as Mezieres ; the third 
extends from Metz, by Triers, Cologne, and Metz, as far 
as Dusseldorf. It is only necessary to secure these three 
sides in such manner that they may be inaccessible to Spain, 
which may be done without difficulty, England taking upon 



SULLY'S CONFERENCE WITH JAMES I 



/ 6 



herself the first, France the second, the Electors and other 
interested princes the third. All the towns which should 
happen to be upon this line, except, perhaps, Thionville, 
which might require to be forced, would, upon a menace 
to be put under contribution, immediately submit. 

The second of the last two means, is for the league 
above mentioned generally and in concert to declare war 
against Spain and the whole house of Austria. What is 
most essential to observe in regard to this war, is, that 
France and England should renounce all pretensions to 
any share of the conquest, and relinquish them to those 
powers who were not of themselves capable of giving um- 
brage to the others. Thus Franche-Comte, Alsace, and the 
Tyrol, naturally fall to the Switzers. The Duke of Savoy 
ought to have Lombardy, to be erected, with his other do- 
minions, into a kingdom ; the kingdom of Naples falls to 
the pope, as being most convenient for him ; Sicily to the 
Venetians, with what may be convenient for them in I stria 
and Friuli. Thus, it appears, the most solid foundation of 
this confederacy would arise from all the parties being gain- 
ers by it. The rest of Italy, subject to its petty princes, 
might perhaps be suffered to continue under its present 
form of government, provided that these little states were 
altogether considered as composing only one body or re- 
public, of which they should be so many members. 

This is a pretty just account of the manner in which I 
acquainted his Britannic majesty with the design to which 
I endeavoured to gain his approbation. I further added 
whatever I thought might tend to obviate his doubts, and 
confirm him in favour of it. I confessed that I was not my- 
self able to elucidate the design ; that I was not surprised 
that his majesty had at first perceived great difficulties 



74 THE GREAT DESIGN OF HENRY IV • 

in it; that Henry would^ no doubt, find many in it also, 
but that they only proceeded from my own weakness, and 
the impossibility of showing clearly what, to be perfectly 
explained, required much time and long discourses ; that 
I was convinced in my own mind the design was not only 
possible, but that also the success of it was infallible ; that 
if anything was found defective in the scheme as I had 
conceived it, it might easily be rectified by the genius and 
abilities of four great kings, and some of the best generals 
in Europe, to whom the execution of it would be entrusted. 

I then returned to the alliance between the two Kings 
of France and England, and I told his- Britannic majesty 
that this alliance being the chief and necessary foundation 
of the confederacy which I had proposed to him, it must 
therefore necessarily begin it, without paying any regard 
to the discourses of prejudiced persons, or being affected 
by such frivolous considerations as those of the debts of 
France and Flanders to England. I assured him that Eng- 
land had nothing to fear from France, for that Henry's great 
preparations of arms and ammunition, and his amassing such 
vast sums, were only designed to enable him hereafter of 
himself to accomplish the greatest part of this important 
design ; at least, that I could flatter myself with success in 
engaging him in it, from motives of glory and the public 
service, which operated so powerfully upon the mind of 
this prince. I touched James in his most sensible part, 
his ambition to immortalise his memory, and his desire 
of being brought into comparison with Henry, and of shar- 
ing his praises. 

My earnestness to succeed gave such force and clear- 
ness to my expressions, that this prince, entering into 
my full meaning, embraced me with a kind of transport 



. SULLY'S CONFERENCE WITH JAMES I 75 

proceeding from his friendship for me, and his indignation 
at the evil councils which they had hitherto endeavoured to 
make him follow. '' No, Sir," said he, '' do not fear that 
I shall ever fail in what we have together agreed upon." 
He protested with the same ardour, that he would not, on 
any consideration, have remained ignorant of what I had 
told him ; that he would never forfeit the good opinion 
which the King of France and I had conceived of him ; 
that he really was what I thought him ; that his reflections 
upon what I had said would yet further confirm him in the 
sentiments with which I had inspired him ; that he would 
even now engage to sign the plan of alliance which I had 
presented to him on Sunday, and wherein he had himself 
made some inconsiderable alterations ; that I should also 
sign it in the name of the King of France, unless I rather 
chose to carry it with me unsigned, to show it to his most 
Christian majesty, in which case he gave me his royal word, 
that, upon my bringing or sending it back at the end of a 
month or six weeks, approved and signed by Henry, he 
would immediately, and without the least difficulty, join to 
it his own signature. He concluded, by obligingly assuring 
me, that for the future he would do nothing but in concert 
with the King of France. He made me promise the same 
secrecy in regard to all persons, except the king my master, 
which I had been so free as to require of him ; and this 
he extended so far, as to forbid me ever putting upon paper 
certain things which upon this occasion he revealed to me, 
and which I therefore suppress. 

Our conference had begun about one o'clock, and con- 
tinued upwards of four hours. The king called in Admiral 
Howard, the Earls of Northumberland, Southampton, 
Mar, Lord Mountjoy, and Cecil, and declared to them, that, 



j6 THE GREAT DESIGN OF HENRY IV 

having deliberately considered my reasons, he was resolved 
to enter into a close alliance with France against Spain. He 
reproached Cecil in very strong terms for having, both in 
his words and actions, acted contrary to his commands ; 
which declaration the secretary received very awkwardly. 
'' Cecil," said James to him, " I command you without any 
reply or objection, in conformity to this my design, to pre- 
pare the necessary writings, according to which, I will then 
give the dexter} and all assurances to the ambassadors of 
the States." This was the first time he had distinguished 
them by this title. Then turning to me, and taking me by 
the hand, he said, ''Well, Mr. Ambassador, are you now 
perfectly satisfied with me .? " I replied by a profound rev- 
erence, and by making his majesty the same protestations 
of fidelity and attachment as if it had been to my own king ; 
and I desired he would let me confirm it to him by kissing 
his hand. He embraced me, and demanded my friendship 
with an air of goodness and confidence which very much 
displeased several of his councillors who were present. 
Upon my departure, he gave orders to the Earl of Nor- 
thumberland to accompany me to the Thames, and to 
Sydney to escort me to London. 

1 This expression signifies an oath, or promise of alhance, made by 
presenting the right hand. 



THE UNITED STATES OF EUROPE 
By Edward Everett Hale^ 

In the midst of war, this phrase begins to assume its 
importance as the promise of peace. It embodies the 
poUcy which the RepubUcan leaders of Europe propose. 
More than this, although most of the Republics of Europe 
are yet to be born, still the phrase '' The United States 
of Europe " begins to be spoken among princes and in 
their cabinets. For three hundred years, at the very least, 
every war in Europe, and every treaty, has prepared the 
way for such a union. For the last five and fifty years, 
the advance has been more rapid and sure. 

It is very true, that, as the proposal for such a union has 
been discussed in the literature of Europe, as in the essays 
of St. Pierre, Rousseau, Emmanuel Kant, Bentham, or de 
Maistre, the burden of proof has been always against it. 
Men speak of it now, whenever it turns up, as if it were a 
part of the dreamer's store of visions, belonging with Ovid's 
Golden Age, or with the fabled knights of the Round 
Table ; and, as the world goes, to say that we shall have 
The United States of Europe only when all princes are 
as pure as King Arthur, all ladies as lovely as the peer- 
less Oriana, all knights as brave as Amadis, is to put it 
off indefinitely to the perfect world. But it happens, very 
fortunately, that over a part of another continent, which 

1 This paper upon " The Great Design," by Dr. Hale, first appeared 
in his magazine, Old and A^ew, March, 1871. 

77 



78 THE GREAT DESIGN OF HENRY IV 

is, for practical purposes, larger than Europe, this system, 
which it is so easy to call a dream, is already extended. 
It happens that the transitory vision has lasted as a sober 
reality in America for eighty years. It happens, that, in 
that eighty years, it has twice met the shock of foreign 
war, and come out only the stronger for the conflict ; nay, 
in the course of that eighty years. The United States of 
America has been threatened once by terrible internal con- 
vulsion. The question was then brought to the test of 
arms, whether, as Mr. Lincoln says, " A system light and 
easy enough for the freedom of the people, must of neces- 
sity be too weak for its own preservation." And, in that 
terrible test. The United States of America stood the rack 
and the convulsion. After that terrible test. The United 
States of America was stronger than ever ; and it seemed 
more certain that it would abide for another century the 
greatest Peace Society that the sun ever looked down upon. 
The real question, then, for Europe at this hour is, 
whether there is any fatality in that continent which pre- 
vents such a union among her sixteen States, as has proved 
possible, though not easy, among seven and thirty States 
in America. History has changed the Saxon Heptarchy 
of seven kingdoms into one England. History has united 
that England with Wales. History has knit England, 
Scotland, and Ireland into The United Empire of Great 
Britain. History has knit all the Russias into the Empire 
of Russia. History has united Normandy, Brittany, France, 
Navarre, Lorraine, and Alsace into the Empire of France. 
History has united Arragon, Leon, and Castile into the 
Kingdom of Spain. History has woven a dozen States of 
yesterday into the Kingdom of Italy of to-day. Even in 
the last summer and autumn, history has transformed the 



THE UNITED STATES OF EUROPE 79 

confederation of Northern Germany into a union close and 
sure. The question for Europe is, whether this is all ? Must 
the process stop here ? Is there any reason why America 
should be the only continent for permanent peace ? Is Eu- 
rope to be given over to permanent war ? Or may Europe, 
in the future, learn its great lesson from this side of the 
water, and The United States of America point the funda- 
mental system for The United States of Europe ? 

The public writers of Europe, when they look across 
the ocean, are wholly deceived even by our great success. 
They write and speak as if mutual peace were of course 
here, as if we had been always one nation. They forget 
that the Spaniard in Florida and the Englishman in Georgia 
hated each other and fought each other as cordially as ever 
Queen Elizabeth hated King Philip of Spain, till the United 
States of America compelled Georgia and Florida to be 
as one. Such writers forget that between Louisiana and 
Kentucky there was as little natural love as between the 
France whose children were in Louisiana, and the Eng- 
land whose children were in Kentucky. They do not 
choose to remember that the Catholic who planted Mary- 
land, and the Puritan who planted Massachusetts, had just 
the same causes for mutual hatred as had the Catholic 
and Roundhead in Ireland, who fought there in the days 
of Cromwell. 

The truth is, that, at the period when the Constitution 
of the United States was formed, there was not one of the 
old thirteen States but had serious questions of contro- 
versy with its neighbors. Massachusetts had by charter a 
right to a strip of country as wide as Massachusetts, run- 
ning to the Pacific Ocean. The State of Connecticut had 
rights similar, though not so large. Each of those States 



8o THE GREAT DESIGN OF HENRY IV 

had a controversy with each other, both of them with New 
York, and all of them with Virginia. These are only illus- 
trations of open questions, just like the questions which 
once and again deluge Europe with blood. What settled 
these questions } Nothing in the nature of things. Thej 
were settled simply and only by the establishment of the 
nation — one out of many — which we call ''The United 
States of America." 

And, unless all coming history is to be the record of 
blood, a lesson is in that history which is to be learned 
and wrought out in practice in the establishment of The 
United States of Europe. The experiment has been tried 
here under some signal advantages ; but, meanwhile, the 
preparations for a like experiment have been going for- 
ward there. It is nearly three centuries since the diplo- 
macy of Europe began to meditate upon the plan. The 
accomplishment of that plan is easier than ever now that 
these three centuries have worked towards its fulfilment. 

It seems worth while, just now, to examine the history 
of that diplomacy ; because it seems possible that this 
country, with an example so admirable, of peace secured 
in face of every difficulty, may at this moment speak the 
word of the great pacification : '' Let us have peace." The 
most sublime expression that has yet fallen from the lips 
of the taciturn president is the great word which United 
America has a right to speak to disunited Europe. I do 
not know whether, at this moment, there are any states- 
men in the world. If there are, is not this very moment 
of war, of defeat of the proud, and victory of the prudent, 
the very moment to bring forward again the hope which 
two centuries and a half ago seemed so near accomplish- 
ment ? Has not the time come for a power so strong as 



THE UNITED STATES OF EUROPE 8 1 

ours to speak in the interests of permanent peace in 
Christendom ? Has not the time come for us all to be 
ready to say the right word, and to do the right thing, 
when the great man of to-day, whoever he may prove to 
be, speaks the great word, which the greatest king of 
France spoke before this country was born ? Has there 
ever been a moment when all true men could act together, 
as in this sea of troubles they might act to establish The 
United States of Europe ? And if the great man of Europe, 
whoever he may be, speaks that great word, and lays the 
plans for that great harmony, may not this land of ours, 
which has given the great example, do more than any land 
to make real the sublime idea ? Our statesmanship, our 
policy, our international science, — they have no object at 
this moment so noble, nay, they have none so real, as the 
advance, by one of the great strides of history, of a per- 
manent peace among the States of Christendom. 

With this conviction, I ask the reader's attention to the 
first appearance in diplomacy of this " Great Design." 

Henry of Navarre, the first sovereign of his time as 
he was its first soldier, had been born almost in poverty, 
and had been trained in misfortune. It would be fair to 
say almost that he had been nursed on the battle-field. 
Protestants have looked askance on him, because he per- 
mitted himself to be received in form into the Roman 
Church; but probably the severest critic will admit that 
Henry, in this apostacy, if it were such, acted with the 
noblest motive, in the hope, which was well founded, of 
securing France from civil war. This is certain, that he 
earned the eager love of his Protestant followers, and the 
complete respect of his Catholic subjects. Through the 



82 THE GREAT DESIGN OF HENRY IV 

poverty, persecution, bloodshed, and struggle of youth, he 
wrought his way at last to the united throne of France 
and Navarre, and founded that dynasty which came to its 
end in 1830. 

His friend and minister, de Rosny, afterwards Duke of 
Sully, has left us in his memoirs better material for the 
real life of this great sovereign than we often have for 
such history. Once and again in those memoirs is allusion 
made to the king's "ten wishes." Some of them were such 
as any man may share. Some were peculiar to kings. 

The first wish of the king is for divine grace, and the 
safety of his soul. 

The second is, that his Protestant subjects may live in 
peace. 

The third, that France may hold her own against all 
enemies ; and 

The fo7irth, alas ! that he may be rid of his wife forever. 

One of the ten wishes is, that he may win a battle in 
person over the King of Spain in person. And so they 
vary, now personal and now political, till nine of the ten 
are named. These nine, it seems, were well known at 
court, — matters, perhaps, of conversation and amuse- 
ment there. The king had ten wishes, and the courtiers 
knew nine of them. The tenth was more secret ; he only 
spoke of it with statesmen and his wisest counsellors. The 
tenth wish was always spoken of as " The Great Design ; " 
and it would seem that unless one were well trained in 
the secrets of diplomacy in those days one knew nothing 
more of it. 

This tenth wish of the soldier-king, this great design, 
which was to crown all his laurels with a new wreath of 
glory, was his design for The United States of Europe. 



THE UNITED STATES OF EUROPE 83 

It is convenient now to speak of such a project as a 
dream ; but, as we have seen, it is a dream which has 
proved a Hving reahty here in America. And when in 
America even ten States rebelled, which had been per- 
mitted to nurse one institution false to every principle of 
a Republic, when they tried the strength of the dream, 
they found that the Christian commonwealth was what it 
was said to be eighteen centuries ago ; they found it was 
strong with the strength of a divine builder ; they found 
it was reared upon the Rock of Ages. '' Whosoever shall 
fall on that stone shall be broken ; on whomsoever it shall 
fall, it shall grind him to powder." They tried the experi- 
ment ; and now they know the meaning of the prophecy. 
It is convenient for people who distrust God's power and 
Christ's kingdom to look on such a project as a dream ; 
but that is not the way it was considered when it was last 
brought forward, when the condition of Europe seemed 
ripe for it, and it needed only, one would say, two or three 
great men to csirry it through. Are there possibly two or 
three such men at the helm of affairs in America or in 
Europe now ? * 

It was a little before the first planting of Virginia, 
nearly twenty years before the landing at Plymouth, that 
Henry, acting in concert with Queen Elizabeth in her old 
age, conceived this plan of what he called the Christian 
commonwealth, to be formed among the powers of Europe. 
No man called this a dream then, when such a soldier as 
Henry agreed to it, and such statesmen as Sully and Cecil 
planned for it. The death of Elizabeth, and the elevation 
of a fool to the throne of England, was its first misfor- 
tune. But Henry IV. was not born to be crossed by fools ; 
and to the moment of his murder, in 16 10, he persevered. 



84 THE GREAT DESIGN OF HENRY IV 

The diplomacy of France and of Northern Europe for 
more than ten years seconded his endeavors. His plan in 
brief was this, to reduce the number of European States, 
much as the Congress of Vienna eventually did two hun- 
dred years afterwards, or so that all Europe should be 
divided among fifteen powers. Russia did not then count 
as part of Europe ; and Prussia was not then born. Of 
these powers, six were the kingdoms of England, France, 
Spain, Denmark, Sweden, and Lombardy. Five were to 
be elective monarchies, viz.. The German Empire, The 
Papacy, Poland, Hungary, and Bohemia; and there were 
to be four Republics, — Switzerland, Venice, The States 
of Holland and Belgium, and The Republic of Italy, made 
up somewhat as the kingdom of Italy is now. These fif- 
teen powers were to maintain but one standing army. The 
chief business of this army was to keep the peace among 
the States, and to prevent any sovereign from interfering 
with any other, from enlarging his borders, or other usur- 
pations. This army and the navy were also to be ready to 
repel invasions of Mussulmans and other barbarians. For 
the arrangement of commerce, and other mutual interests, 
a Senate was to be appointed of four members from each 
of the larger, and two from each of the smaller States, 
who should serve three years, and be in constant session. 
It was supposed, that, for affairs local in their character, 
a part of these senators might meet separately from the 
others. On occasions of universal importance, they would 
meet together. Smaller Congresses, for more trivial cir- 
cumstances, were also provided for. 

The plan contemplated a grand army of Europe, of 
320,000 men, and a navy of 120 vessels, to be provided 
in quotas agreed upon by the respective members of the 



THE UNITED STATES OF EUROPE 85 

association ; and, from the beginning, the members of 
the association announced that no secession was to be 
possible or to be permitted. 

With generosity such as few princes have shown, Henry 
proposed that the executive which should carry out the 
decisions of the senate should be the elected emperor of 
Germany, for the time. This was probably the weakest 
part of the plan, the point to be secured, being, of course, 
then or now, the most difficult. But, as the Emperor was 
chosen in an assembly in which so many of the several 
powers had a voice, this seemed the simplest adjustment. 

What gave the practical character, in its very outset, to a 
scheme so bold, was the absolute disclaimer, both on Henry's 
part and Elizabeth's, of any desire to increase their own ter- 
ritories or power. Henry satisfied even the jealousy of the 
pope in this regard ; and so loyal was he in his diplomacy, 
always looking forward with this '' Great Design," that, ac- 
cording to Sully, at the moment of Henry's murder, he had 
secured the practical active co-operation of tw^elve of the 
fifteen powers, who were to unite in this confederation. They 
had avouched this co-operation by raising their contingents 
for the army, by which they proposed to crush the preten- 
sions of the house of Austria and the king of Spain. The 
co-operation of Switzerland also would be secured at any 
moment it was wanted : so that really Austria and Spain had 
at that moment all Europe in arms against them ; and the 
leader of all Europe was this chivalrous Henry, in whom the 
pope had confidence, and with whom the Protestants were 
all allied, — Protestant at heart, Catholic in ritual, a man 
possessed with this great design, still in the very prime of 
life, in command of an admirable army, with a treasury full, 
a people prosperous, himself the first real soldier of his time. 



S6 THE GREAT DESIGN OF HENRY IV 

No man said that ''the Great Design" was a dream 
then ! 

It is easy to see that the central wish which bound these 
powers together was the wish to humble Austria. Under 
Charles the Fifth, Austria and Spain, with all the new 
wealth of the Indias at their command, had domineered 
over all Europe. Philip the Second would have been glad 
to do the same thing. The great design of Henry offered, 
therefore, to the various powers this immediate prize, that 
they would humble the emperor of Austria, and tie his 
hands. This was just as the great alliance of the nations 
of Europe against the first Napoleon was animated by a 
determination to humble him, and the power of France. 
But, beyond this immediate purpose, Henry and Elizabeth 
and the king of Sweden looked to such a control by the 
allied powers that no single sovereign should so claim the 
lion's share again. The Great Design looked beyond the 
immediate purpose to the permanent peace of Europe. 

The very jealousy with which Austria was regarded was 
the strong support of Henry's diplomacy. He was enough 
of a Catholic to obtain even the pope's secret support in 
his negotiations. The scheme, therefore, had the advan- 
tage which such a scheme could hardly have had from 
that time to this, that it was not a mere sectarian alliance 
of Protestant against Papist. It proposed a combination 
of Catholic Italy and Catholic France with Protestant Eng- 
land and Protestant Sweden and Germany. This was its 
element of strength. 

Its weakness was, that, before it could even be set in 
motion, the separate States of Europe had to be re-organ- 
ized within. Thus the Republic of Belgium was to be 
created ; the Kingdom of Lombardy was to be created ; 



THE UNITED STATES OF EUROPE 8/ 

the Republic of Italy was to be created ; and so on : and 
every petty prince, who, in this process, had been turned 
out of the crumbling owl-hole which he called a palace, 
would be grunting and scolding, and doing his little best 
to stop the progress of the Great Design. Nay, every scul- 
lion that washed the dishes in the courts of such a poten- 
tate, and every beggar-boy that screamed at his horse's 
tail, would consider that their perquisites and honors were 
stolen from them. The Great Design was encumbered 
from the beginning with such difficulty of detail. 

But it was not left, alas ! to any fair test of its allies or 
of its enemies. Just as Henry was maturing his last prepa- 
rations for that great campaign, in which, at the head of 
united Europe, he would offer Austria peace and the 
Great Design, or war against all the world beside, another 
issue came. Henry entered his lumbering carriage of state, 
to make Sully a last visit at the arsenal. They turned 
from the Louvre into one of the narrow streets of Paris, 
when some obstacle stopped the progress. At the moment, 
a very tall man, in a cloak, muffled heavily, and with a 
broad-brimmed hat over his eyes, stepped upon the wheel 
of the coach, dashed his arm into the window, and struck 
the king with a knife ; to make certain, he drew back the 
knife, and struck again at the heart, — the most loving 
and gallant heart in all Christendom : and the king fell 
dead. With that blow, the Great Design died. It was to 
have made real, perhaps for centuries, the dying prayer 
of the Saviour of the world, that '' they all may be one ; " 
and, at the blow of a crazed fanatic, this hope vanished 
for well nigh three centuries. 

How like another stroke by another fanatic, which 
stopped the beating of the most loving heart in America, 



88 THE GREAT DESIGN OF HENRY IV 

at the moment when that heart was seeking the pacifica- 
tion of our warring States, full of kind wishes and kind 
hopes for all ! 

That scrap from the history of courts is a proper illus- 
tration of the duties, the hopes, and the prayers of the 
citizens of this Republic. It is one of the few illustrations 
in history where the kings of the world have distinctly 
chosen peace, permanent peace, as the great object of 
policy. Such is not the habit of kings. No : but it should 
be the habit of peoples ; it should be the habit of repub- 
lics. The diplomacy of a Republic, because it is a Re- 
public should look to the strengthening and maintaining 
peace among the nations of mankind. 

We are constantly misled in this matter, because we 
go to school, and study the histories of mere families, — 
of Bourbons, of Tudors, of Hapsburgs, — and their wars. 
We get excited over these wars. Unconsciously, we come 
to think that there is no great nation but a nation which 
is great in war. We might as rightly wish to have our 
nation great in earthquakes, or great in pestilences, or 
great in conflagrations. To do our duty in war when it 
comes, that is one thing ; to enjoy war, or to seek it, that 
is another. The great soldiers have always been great paci- 
ficators. The great Napoleon is no exception. But we 
are deceived by the books. Because an old feudal nation 
followed war, and has war written all over its history, we 
take a notion that we, though we are not a feudal nation, 
must repeat that history. On the other hand, the whole 
being and nature of our nation is different. This Repub- 
lic exists simply that so many men and women may have 
happy homes. That is what it is for. It is not for the 



THE UNITED STATES OF EUROPE 89 

extension of any boundaiy, it is not for the propagation 
of any theory, it is not for the glory of any leader, that 
our States are founded, or our Union set in order. No : 
it is that forty million men and women may live in happy 
homes. George Frisbie Hoar said the other day, that the 
business of the people of this country is to see that " no 
more history is written." He alluded to Montesquieu's 
maxim, that that people is happy whose history is not writ- 
ten. Well, that is our duty. To keep outside of the sensation 
life, — the poor life of the scene-shifter in the melo-drama, 
which makes up the common record of the vulgar histories. 
It is our duty to cultivate and to illustrate those relations of 
peace in which, and in which only, come in the true pros- 
perity of nations. 

As it happens, this great necessity of keeping the peace 
at home has cost us one great civil war. Very fortunately 
for us, that great duty of ruling out of our own affairs, 
once for all, the one relic of feudalism we found here, has 
shown to the world that there is no such military strength, 
where strength is needed, as the strength in arms of a 
free people. That has been happily proved for a century. 
That being known, our policy is, and our duty is, to watch 
this blessed moment which, after three centuries, may be 
sweeping round even now upon the dial, for securing the 
permanent peace of Christendom. It sometimes seems as 
if, in statesmanship, we were living on the reputation of 
the fathers ; but, whenever we shall have a statesman at the 
front worthy of that name, he will actively, and with steady 
system, carry forward plans which look to a pacification 
of Europe, as sure and as well-founded as the pacification 
which the fathers wrought out for America. The plans 
of Henry are already half carried through. The jarring 



go THE GREAT DESIGN OF HENRY IV 

duchies and electorates and principalities of Europe are 
already reduced to a lesser number than he proposed; 
and in the present position of the pope, in the union of 
Italy, in the very weakness of France, in the asserted 
strength of Germany, in the anxiety of Austria, in the 
change of dynasty of Spain, in the new institutions of 
Russia, and in the overthrow of landed rights of England, 
the moment has come which some great man will certainly 
choose for trying to work out the other half of Henry's 
problem, — for establishing The United States of Europe. 

If we have any statesmen, and if we have any diplomacy, 
the men will guide the policy toward the solution of this 
problem. 

Does any man say that we have a quarrel of our own 
with England to be adjusted first ? This is not. so, as we 
have said before. There was an England with which we 
had a quarrel ; but not with this England, not with the 
England of to-day. There was an England once, the Eng- 
land of the Tudors and Stuarts, the England of George 
the Third, of Bute and North and Grenville, with which 
our fathers had a quarrel. That England still survived in 
its dotage nine years ago; and some dregs of that quarrel 
were ours then. But five years past have wrought a revo- 
lution. That old England has been swept away as thor- 
oughly as old Virginia is swept away, and ought to be 
forgotten as Jefferson Davis is forgotten. The government 
of England has been taken from the land-holders of Eng- 
land, and given to the people of England. The feudal 
aristocracy has been bidden to take its place. The working- 
men of England have stepped to the front to take theirs. 
They are willing to pay us what they owe us. Let them 
pay us. They are willing to give us security for the future. 



THE UNITED STATES OF EUROPE 91 

Let them give it ; and then, while they wage their war in 
England with what are left of the old Warwicks and 
Stuarts, barons and cavaliers, and all such standard-bear- 
ers of the past, let our statesmen see to it that we are the 
friends of the free institutions of the new-born England. 
We must not trip the feet and hold the hands of our own 
allies, — of such men as John Bright and Thomas Hughes 
and the working-men of Lancashire, — who never once 
failed in their loyalty to truth and freedom. 

This Republic is founded for the happiness of home. 
When once that truth can be understood, both by noisy 
politicians and by quiet statesmen, the great victory of 
truth will be nearly won. Not for the record of slaughter, 
but for the happiness of unmolested homes ; for this the 
true statesman resolves, as the true Christian prays. And 
this nation works out its destiny, and its public officers 
achieve their own true honor, as its word is spoken in the 
great plea for the Christian commonwealth. At the present 
moment, the next step in the advance towards it is the up- 
building of The United States of Europe. 

The United States of Europe and the United States of 
America would not quarrel ; and they would hold the power 
of the world in their hands. The international policy of 
the world would be developed as in the vision 

"Where the war-drums throbbed no longer, and 

the battle-flags were furled 
In the parliament of man, the federation of the 

world : 
There the common sense of most shall hold a 

fretful realm in awe; 
And the kindly earth shall slumber, lapped in 

universal law. 



